World at her feet: polio disabled identity in The Bulletin newsletter
Today (October 24) is World Polio Day, focusing on a communicable disease which the World Health Assembly committed to eradicate in 1988.
Reforming English spelling
After the Spelling Society’s London congress, Anatoly Liberman makes the case for reforming English spelling slowly: drop needless letters in words like acquire, communal, and sufficient, offend no one, and let popular culture help.
Bidding, forbidding, an enigmatic root, and two questions
Older dictionaries sometimes informed their readers that Modern English has two different verbs: bid “to ask for something” (also “to command”) and bid “to pray.”
A scramble for information, or dangerous shr-schr words
Words beginning with shr- ~ schr- ~scr- have bothered me for years, partly because of German Schreck “horror.”
Women, memory, and the archives of Lebanon’s Civil War
When official history falls silent, who remembers the war? This question lies at the heart of Lebanon’s troubled relationship with the memory of its Civil War (1975–90). More than three decades after the conflict ended, the war remains a deeply contested part of Lebanon’s past.
Getting lost in revision
Revision, I’ve been told again and again, is the key to effective writing. Yet sometimes I find myself making an essay or chapter worse when I revise it.
Why the West’s critics speak a Western moral language
For many critics, the West is uniquely responsible for colonialism, racism, oppression, and exploitation. America, in particular, is portrayed as a society built upon these injustices.
Answering two questions from readers
What connects Ghent with John of Gaunt, and are lubber and loblolly related? Anatoly Liberman answers two readers’ questions about names, sounds, and word origins.
Gloves, gauntlets, and gaunt people
Last week, I finished my story with a brief reference to all kinds of gloves. A few days later, a query came about the word gauntlet.
Chemical periodicity: why does the chemistry of some elements resemble the chemistry of others?
Before attempting to answer the title question, we should be clear about what the term ‘periodicity’ actually means—and where better to turn for an explanation than the matchless OED. The entry under ‘chemistry’ is the most relevant, viz. ‘The complex periodic variation of the properties of the chemical elements with increasing atomic number’, the term’s […]
Unsavory etymologies: dung and its kin
Below, I’ll speak about the amazing history of the word dung “manure.” In broad outline, the story is known, but some details are seldom discussed in dictionaries.
Boots (or rather, shoes) on the ground
Few words are harder to trace to their sources than the names of clothing articles. Those names travel with the things to which they belong, and the sources are easily lost sight of.
I had to look (them up)
When I’m reading or listening to a book, I sometimes find myself momentarily drifting away from what the author is saying and worrying about words and phrases I encounter.
Translation, not imitation: what legal educators can learn from schools
Teaching is something of a family profession in our household. My dad was a primary school headteacher, my mum was a head of department and teacher in further education, and my sisters teach in primary and secondary education.
Tarry or hurry?
It is surprising how similar the verbs in the title sound, though they are antonyms: tarry means “to linger, delay,” while hurry refers to haste.
Climate Adaptation – who will we become in a warming world?
Climate change has become an everyday reality. Communities, businesses, and nations are being battered by impacts that would have seemed impossibly apocalyptic a decade ago: unprecedented heat waves, destructive storms, crop failures, floods, and wildfires. Global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is too slow, and we are likely to breach 2 degrees Celsius above […]