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  1. Blog Excerpts

     Scrabble Showdown: "Zen" Versus... "Geocache"?
    Wed Apr 09 20:00:00 EDT 2014
    In Hasbro's "Scrabble Word Showdown," fans of the game have been narrowing down candidates for a new word to include the game's soon-to-be-revised official dictionary. Two finalists are left standing: zen (which many Scrabblers have been requesting), and... geocache, the recipient of a big get-out-the-vote effort by fans of the high-tech treasure hunt known as "geocaching." See the latest from Hasbro here, and read Caitlin Dewey's take in the Washington Post here. Update: And the winner is... geocache!

  2. Word Count

     Strangers in Our Midst: Words We Skip While Reading
    Wed Apr 09 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    When I was studying Spanish and had gotten to the point where our assignments consisted of reading real books, I kept a well-thumbed dictionary on my desk. Every paragraph seemed to contain several words that I had to look up, which was tedious and slow. Our wise teacher kept telling us that we didn't need to do that—you don't actually have to know what every word means to understand the text.

  3. Blog Excerpts

     Baseball Lingo, from "Cup of Coffee" to "Southpaw"
    Tue Apr 08 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    With the baseball season underway, the sport's colorful lingo comes to the fore once again. Our own Ben Zimmer talked to KUOW-Seattle about the origins of some baseball terms, like "cup of coffee," "hitterish," and "southpaw." Catch the interview here.

  4. Word Count

     Adverb Placement, Generally and Specifically
    Mon Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Recently, I came across a version of this sentence in a client document: "ABC Corp. hired XYZ Co. exclusively for testing multiple simulations in order to find the best solution." Did ABC Corp. hire just XYZ Co. or did it hire XYZ Co. just for testing? Although the sentence is grammatical, the meaning is ambiguous absent further context.

  5. Word Count

     A Writer's Archive
    Fri Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    If, as a writer, you write long enough, well enough, and popularly enough, your manuscripts, drafts, notes, and letters may someday be gathered, sorted, catalogued, boxed, and stored deep in the bowels of a library archive, ready to be pored over, decades or centuries later, by scholars and biographers eager to learn how and why you wrote as you did.

  6. Word Count

     Please Advise Your Verb of Choice
    Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Any word in a living language can develop different meanings in different contexts. These uses of the word can have distinct tones and qualities, with the result that one goes largely unnoticed while its twin draws regular complaints. For example, my bank recently sent me a form to fill in, which included the following instruction: Please advise your Country of Birth.

  7. Blog Excerpts

     Which Word Should Go Into the Next Scrabble Dictionary?
    Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Hasbro, the company that makes Scrabble, is revising the game's official dictionary, and they're letting Scrabble fans pick one of the words to include. Some worthy contenders include zen, ew, and bestie. You can join in the Scrabble Word Showdown on Facebook here, and check out the authoritative take on Hasbro's contest from Stefan Fatsis on Slate here.

  8. Evasive Maneuvers

     Conscious Uncoupling With Possible Debt Adjustment
    Wed Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    A few of my female friends have a fun hobby. Not knitting. Not kickboxing. Not baking pies. Not vampire-slaying. Hating Gwyneth Paltrow. I haven't fully grasped my friends' loathing in the past, but I'm beginning to understand, thanks to a humdinger of a euphemism Paltrow used to describe her impending divorce: conscious uncoupling.

  9. Language Lounge

     Understanding Your Robot's Grammar
    Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    Now that we're in the brave new world of the 21st century, there may be a challenger to the monopoly that human languages enjoy in complex and fully functional grammars, and the challenge may come from robots. There is no need for alarm, but if the hunch of robotic researchers is confirmed, it's possible that in due course, a natural grammar will emerge from the robots' linguistic interactions.

  10. Word Routes

     A "Final Four" of March Madness Lingo
    Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2014
    With the teams competing in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament whittled down to the Final Four, "March Madness" is coming to a close. (Actually, as has been the case for a few decades now, March Madness extends into the beginning of April, when the semifinal and final games are played.) In honor of college hoops, I've selected a "Final Four" of important terms associated with the tournament.
60 61 62 63 64 Displaying 611-620 of 3488 Results