Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. So many of us learned that outrageous mouthful of a word at an early age, when it was truly a verbal milestone to be able to pronounce it without getting tongue-tied. And just saying the word is an invitation to start singing the song from the classic 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins. But how did the word come to be? When I heard the news that one of the Mary Poppins songwriters passed away last month, I set about to answer that question, taking me down many unexpected alleyways of 20th-century popular culture.  Continue reading...

As a teenager, I got the impression that an easy way to make any insult extra-offensive was to say it carelessly, as if you were drunk. But eventually I realized that a slur is not a mumbled remark expressing general disrespect about someone. On the other hand, even the most carefully enunciated insult can qualify as a slur, provided it's grounded in race, religion, or other historical bases for discrimination.  Continue reading...

I am a lazy but honest man, so I have to admit my first thought when looking at The Language Wars by Henry Hitchings was not so noble. Noting the lengthiness (300+ pages) and a small font size, I thought, "Uh oh. Why did I agree to review this? I could be watching Justified." As I plowed into the book, my fears turned out to be unwarranted. In fact, my fears turned out to be ridiculous, as fears tend to be.  Continue reading...

This weekend marks the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, so let's commemorate the occasion by looking back on some words and phrases that were particularly associated with the maritime disaster.  Continue reading...

Every so often it's important to revisit an issue, to clarify or modify it, depending on the circumstances. It "begs the question" whether revisiting something is needed. After all, revisiting is important, because it allows revisiting, which is important. And if it's not important, it "begs the question," why ask about revisiting at all?  Continue reading...

I've been in the technical-writing world long enough to remember when graphical user interfaces — that is, the Macintosh and Windows — arrived, and when we had to learn how to describe this interesting new way of interacting with computers. We don't think about it much now, but there was a time when terms like point, drag, click and double-click, and maximizing a window were all new terms and concepts.  Continue reading...