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  1. Evasive Maneuvers

     "Big Foreign Policy Initiative": What Is It Good For?
    Wed Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Just as a biologist can tell a critter from a creepy-crawly by the number of legs, euphemism enthusiasts can tell a 5-alarm, major-league, restaurant-quality euphemism by the presence of three words. Readers of previous columns may remember terms such as employee dialogue session, strategic dynamism effort, enhanced pension offer, life problem issue, taco meat filling, and customer pain point. Every time, three words = three metric tons of malarkey.

  2. Language Lounge

     There's a Word for It (or Soon Will Be)
    Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    How speakers introduce additions to the language that then gain circulation is difficult to document: even today in the Internet age, tracing the origins of linguistic innovation is a sleuth's game and it's a subject that intrigues linguists. Now researchers are trying to bring more light to the process by which people create, learn and use new words.

  3. Behind the Dictionary

     Core Values: The Evolution of "Hardcore" Usage
    Mon Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    The word hardcore has been getting more powerful in English for the past 80 years or so. What started as a way of describing the persistently unemployed has expanded into the domains of politics, music, and video games, not to mention general usage.

  4. Contest

     The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: September Edition
    Fri Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    As the Major League Baseball season comes to a close and the postseason warms up, we've got a baseball-themed crossword this month. Figure it out and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!

  5. Word Count

     Spelling Malpractice: Of Vocal "Chords" and Digestive "Tracks"
    Thu Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    These days, one often sees mentions of "vocal chords" and "digestive tracks." These spellings are both logical, both frequently seen, and both incorrectly spelled (for now).

  6. Word Count

     Stormy Weather: A Tempest of Meteorological Terms
    Wed Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Given how much our day-to-day lives are influenced by weather — and especially by storms — perhaps it's not surprising that we have a rich vocabulary for these natural phenomena.

  7. Word Routes

     "Septaper" and "Octaper": Fed-Watchers Remake the Calendar
    Tue Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke foiled the predictions of many analysts that September would usher in tapering, or the gradual slowdown of the bond-buying policy that the Fed instituted to keep long-term interest rates low. Those analysts even had renamed the month Septaper, but now they're looking ahead to a possible Octaper. After that, it gets a bit harder to come up with clever month-blends.

  8. Candlepower

     "Hero" Worship: The All-Purpose Admiring Appellation
    Mon Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    "We don't need another hero," sang Tina Turner in the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Sorry, Tina — from the evidence, we need "hero" more than ever. The word has become a noun-of-all-trades, a succinct four-letter label for people and things we admire.

  9. Blog Excerpts

     In a Battle of Politicians and the Press, Sen. Tim Kaine is the Top Speller
    Fri Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    In 1913, the National Press Club hosted a spelling bee that pitted members of Congress against members of the press. This week, the club celebrated the centennial of that event by bringing lawmakers and journalists together once again for a spelling battle, and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia emerged as the victor.

  10. Blog Excerpts

     Serve up Some "Argle-Bargle" for Talk Like a Pirate Day
    Thu Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Avast! Ahoy! Bring it on, mateys! Did you know that September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Arrrr, it's true! Lately, it seems that everyone is trying to sound piratical.
74 75 76 77 78 Displaying 751-760 of 3488 Results