Wednesday Jan 19th, 2011

On nuts, spoons, and the metaphors borrowed from sex & food

Last week I mentioned the idiom to be (dead) nuts on ‘to be in love with’ and the verb spoon ‘to make love’ and promised to say something about both. After such a promise our readers must have spent the middle of January in awful suspense. So here goes. The semantic range of many slang words is often broad, but the multitude of senses attested for Engl. <... read more »

Thursday Feb 9th, 2012

Denim venom: future products in the style of jweats

Word blends are the bunnies of language: they breed like motherfathers.
Wednesday Feb 8th, 2012

Odd man out, a militant Gepid, and other etymological oddities

The odd history of the word odd.
Wednesday Feb 1st, 2012

The deep roots of gaiety

The question about the origin of gay “homosexual” has been asked and answered many times.
Wednesday Jan 25th, 2012

Monthly Gleanings: January 2012

In Sackcloth and Ashes.
Wednesday
Jan 18th, 2012

An Etymological Headache

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Monday
Jan 16th, 2012

Martin Luther King, Jr., Rhetorically Speaking

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Wednesday
Jan 11th, 2012

The infamous C-word

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Friday
Jan 6th, 2012

What is a caucus, anyway?

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Wednesday
Jan 4th, 2012

Beginning one way in the New Year

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Wednesday
Dec 28th, 2011

Meditations in the process of Winter Gleanings

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Thursday
Dec 22nd, 2011

No one Tebows after Bucknering

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Wednesday
Dec 21st, 2011

All’s well that ends well

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Monday
Dec 19th, 2011

Verily, this tomfoolery must be quashed!

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