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  1. Word Routes

     The Origins of "Black Friday"
    Fri Nov 25 00:00:00 EST 2011
    Today is the day after Thanksgiving, when holiday shopping kicks off and sales-hunters are in full frenzy. The day has come to be known in the United States as "Black Friday," and there are a number of myths about the origin of the name. Retailers would like you to believe that it's the day when stores turn a profit on the year, thus "going into the black." But don't you believe it: the true origins come from traffic-weary police officers in Philadelphia in the early 1960s.

  2. Word Routes

     What's the Matter with "Funness"?
    Thu Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2012
    In my most recent column for the Boston Globe, I poke fun at new advertising slogans that Apple is using for its iPod line: the latest iPod Nano is "Completely Renanoed," while the iPod Touch is "Engineered for Maximum Funness." Whereas renanoed at least shows a modicum of creativity (turning Nano into a verb capable of taking the re- prefix), funness seems to be an unnecessarily cutesy elaboration on plain old fun. But hang on: can we make a distinction between fun and funness?

  3. Blog Excerpts

     The Rise of "Cyber Monday"... and New Light on "Black Friday"
    Mon Dec 01 11:00:00 EST 2014
    Today is "Cyber Monday," the day that retailers have anointed as the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season. "Cyber Monday" is a recent coinage, going back to a 2005 press release. "Black Friday," on which "Cyber Monday" is modeled, goes back to the early 1960s, and some newly discovered evidence illuminates its early use.

  4. Blog Excerpts

     How "Black Friday" Spawned "Cyber Monday"
    Mon Dec 02 00:00:00 EST 2013
    In case you haven't heard, today is "Cyber Monday," the day that retailers have decided we should all be flocking to make online purchases for our holiday gift list. Last year, Ben Zimmer explained how the advent of "Black Friday" led to the branding of "Cyber Monday" and other days in the Holy Week of shopping.

  5. Word Routes

     From "Cyber Monday" to "Cyber Week"
    Mon Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2012
    Retailers, not content with branding products, have lately taken to branding days of the week, as a way to hype the holiday shopping rush. "Black Friday," the name for the day after Thanskgiving, was transformed from a negative to a positive by some clever etymological mythologizing (make that etymythologizing). Then the Monday after Thanksgiving was christened "Cyber Monday," and now some marketers would like to extend that to a "Cyber Week."

  6. Blog Excerpts

     That Iconic Boston Accent
    Mon Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2013
    The "Today Show" visited Boston on Friday, and as part of the show they included a segment on the accent of the city, so immediately recognizable and so often imitated (but rarely well!). And who did they turn to for background on how the accent came to be? Our very own Ben Zimmer.

  7. Word Count

     Your Choice: Alternating Between Alternatives
    Tue Aug 28 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    Cities that have hard winters have no "alternative" and must repair roads in the summer. And when they do, they need to provide motorists with "alternate" routes.

    That sentence illustrates the difference between "alternative" and "alternate."

  8. Word Routes

     The American Dialect Society's "Word of the Year" Nominees
    Fri Jan 08 00:00:00 EST 2010
    Greetings from Baltimore, where the American Dialect Society is holding its annual conference. Along with scholarly presentations about American linguistic varieties, the ADS is also making selections for Word of the Year (2009) and Word of the Decade (2000-09). ADS members fixed on a final list of nominees for the different categories that will be up for a vote on Friday.

  9. Evasive Maneuvers

     A Bad Case of the Peedoodles
    Wed Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2010

    When you obsess about words as much as I do, it's hard to pick a favorite. It's like Batman picking his favorite criminal lowlife. How do you choose between the Joker, Two Face, the Penguin, and the scum who killed your parents? It's just too painful.

    But what the heck, here's a good candidate, and it's also exhibit Q in the case of why I love the Dictionary of American Regional English: peedoodle.

  10. Word Routes

     Presenting the Nominees for the 2012 Word of the Year
    Fri Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2013
    At the American Dialect Society's annual conference in Boston, we took a break from paper presentations to select nominations for the Word of the Year. As chair of the New Words Committee, I presided over the nominating session on Thursday. Winners will be selected from the different categories on Friday evening, culminating in the vote for the overall Word of the Year. Here's the list of nominees.
5 6 7 8 9 Displaying 61-70 of 103 Results