What makes language memorable?
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.
A Very Short Introduction to Rock ‘n’ Roll [playlist]
Listen to Bernard Herrmann’s eight scores for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. You’ll hear, in music, a mirror of how the duo’s personal relationship evolved, from its joyous start in late 1954 to its bitter end in 1966.
Germanic holiness and a few mundane comments on the previous post
Holy and whole are almost identical twins. Anatoly Liberman traces Germanic words for holiness, from Gothic weihs and Wulfila’s Bible to Odense’s lost temple, then answers readers on joy, jiggered, and spelling reform.
What is gender? Why and how does it matter?
Gender is everywhere. For most of us, it structures almost everything about almost every daily interaction, from our choice of words to the tone and body language that we use.
J for joy? I’ll be jiggered! And more on spelling
Why are jig, jog, and jug such etymological nightmares, and where did I’ll be jiggered come from? Anatoly Liberman chases a few sound-imitative j-words, then answers readers who asked who needs spelling reform in the age of spellcheck and AI.
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.