Topic : Word OriginsWord RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexiconPronouns Prevail for Word of Year and Decade January 10, 2020 By Nancy Friedman
Linguistically, it seems, the second decade of the 21st century was all about our selves. At its annual meeting the American Dialect Society selected (my) pronouns as its word of the year for 2019 and singular or nonbinary they as the word of the decade.
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Article Topics:Evasive ManeuversEuphemisms old and newFinding (or Inventing) Euphemisms in the Latest OED Update November 13, 2019 By Mark Peters
Here's a look at the OED's latest quarterly update to see if there are any euphemisms. If not, I'll suggest how some of the terms could be euphemisms. After all, this column is an offering to the Malarkey Gods.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversLips That Touch Liquor October 2, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
October marks the centenary of the Volstead Act, the enabler of Prohibition. This occasion licenses the Language Lounge to pop the corks a bit early and look at the linguistic legacy of the Prohibition era.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversThe Notional Space of the Digital World August 1, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
Metaphors about space come at us so thick and fast in talking about the digital world that we don't even notice that they are there, and that's probably a good thing: it helps us to make sense of complicated phenomena.
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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.
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This fast-growing transportation trend has added some new terms to our vocabulary, and revived some older ones.
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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.
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