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  1. Word Count

     The March of the E-Books
    Mon Mar 25 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    "Kindle-schmindle, Nook-schnook, give me a good old-fashioned book," I wrote a year ago in a Visual Thesaurus column that garnered more comments, and more negative comments, than any other column I've written in three years contributing to the site. "Fie on you, Michael Lydon," VT subscribers told me in no uncertain terms, "we love our Kindles, and don't you dare say mean things about our little black and white darlings!"

  2. Blog Excerpts

     March Madness: Are You Betting on "Chalk"?
    Fri Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    The NCAA College Basketball Tournament, nicknamed "March Madness," is in full swing again, and some early-round upsets have spelled bad news for those betting on chalk, meaning the favorites in the tournament. How did the term chalk come to be associated with teams favored by oddsmakers? A Word Routes column by Ben Zimmer has the answer.

  3. Blog Excerpts

     Obsolete Words Worth Reviving?
    Thu Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Some words that have fallen into disuse are due for a revival. Recently, the blog Jezebel compiled "18 uncommon or obsolete words that we think may have died early," including curglaff ("the shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water") and resistentialism (the seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects). Check out the complete list here.

  4. Word Count

     Covetous: The Difference Between "Jealousy" and "Envy"
    Thu Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    The pope gets to wear nice red shoes, and a friend said, "I'm really jealous of those!" But, technically, she couldn't be jealous, unless she thought the shoes were hers, and the pope had stolen them. Instead, she "envied" the shoes, and was "envious" that he gets to wear them.

  5. Candlepower

     How "Livery" Changed Its Spots
    Wed Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    For a word that first showed up in English around 1300, livery has managed to remain surprisingly current, appearing in a variety of contexts. One sense of livery borrowed from British English has particular resonance in branding and design.

  6. Word Count

     Towards a Fuller Understanding of Usage
    Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Jonathon Owen is a copy editor and student of linguistics who "holds the paradoxical view that it's possible to be a prescriptivist and descriptivist simultaneously." Here, he investigates the word towards, a favorite target of American editors, who love to lop off that supposedly superfluous -s.

  7. Word Count

     "And/Or": A Source of Vagueness, Clarity, or Both?
    Mon Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    A recent blog post decried the use of and/or. Rich Adin makes the case that the conjunction is inaccurate. This, at least, is an improvement over the popular argument that and/or is "hideous" or "monstrous," but it isn't entirely true, either.

  8. Word Routes

     A "Scalawag" in the Family Tree
    Fri Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Scalawag, "a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel," is a fun word to say. It sounds like something a pirate on the high seas might call a rival. In fact, it originated in western New York in the 1830s, and a young genealogy buff recently turned up some fascinating early evidence on the word when he was investigating an ancestor.

  9. Word Count

     Word Tasting Note: "Conclave"
    Thu Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    This is a topical word: the cardinal electors have just spent two days locked into their pressure-cooker, the Sistine Chapel, to determine who will bear the keys of St. Peter. They were all sequestered in the Vatican, that enclave in the middle of the Eternal City, locked in debate and prayer and voting. Literally locked in: the doors of the Sistine Chapel were locked.

  10. Word Count

     Vocab Lab: A Prehensile Tale
    Wed Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Etymology — the roots (or, etymologically speaking, seeds) of words — can sound like a pretty dry pursuit if you aren't a word farmer by trade. But knowing a word's derivation has all kinds of benefits. It can make you a better, more nuanced communicator, of course, and if you happen to find words fascinating and beautiful, it can heighten your, ahem, textual pleasure.
89 90 91 92 93 Displaying 901-910 of 3488 Results