In many ways, Prohibition was a social and legal failure, but in one respect it succeeded wildly: It vastly enriched our lexicons of slang and marketing, often to lasting effect.  Continue reading...

What a glorious time to be job-hunting in the US! I'm not talking about the relatively low unemployment rate; I'm referring to the high rate of job-title inflation.  Continue reading...

Do you find 21st-century life shallow and superficial? Take another look: In fact, ours is an era of extraordinary depth — linguistically speaking, anyway. As the 2011 song by Adele put it, we're rolling in the deep.  Continue reading...

This fast-growing transportation trend has added some new terms to our vocabulary, and revived some older ones.  Continue reading...

The ubiquitous, and relatively recent, commercial sense of nation veers away from the word's earlier meanings. And it intersects in interesting ways with a related word that's also in the spotlight right now: nationalism.  Continue reading...

What will you remember about 2018? Among everything else, I'll remember some brand names that made headlines or just piqued my professional curiosity. Here are my top ten.  Continue reading...