An etymological stinkpo(s)t
The Oxford Etymologist’s subject today is the origin of the verb “stink”.
Is it a noun or an adjective?
The distinction between nouns and adjectives seems like it should be straightforward, but it’s not. Grammar is not as simple as your grade-school teacher presented it.
Language peeves and the word peeve
The Oxford Etymologist considers the etymology of the word “peeve.”
No release from an etymological entanglement
The Oxford Etymologist responds to readers comments on his most recent blog post topics.
Communicative luck reduction: machine-like or social (or both)?
While we occasionally have the sense that we are rolling dice with words and hoping for good luck, meaning and communication would be impossible if we only and always succeed no better than luck would allow.
A few things at a glance
The Oxford Etymologist responds to readers comments on his most recent blog post topics.
Irregular gleanings and a last shot at Modern English usage
The Oxford Etymologist responds to readers comments on his most recent blog post topics.
In praise of phrases
Writers need to love words—the good, the bad, and the irregular. And they need to respect syntax, the patterns that give words their form. But when writers understand the power of phrases, their sentences shine.
An etymological cul-de-sac: the verbs “flaunt” and “flout”
The Oxford Etymologist explores the history and development of the verb “flaunt”, “to display ostentatiously,”
Language history and we, part two (actually, a conclusion)
The Oxford Etymologist considers feminist perspectives of language development, split infinitives, and the pronoun “they” as discussed in Valerie Fridland’s “Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English.”
Exploring language and masculinities in the media landscape
Robert Lawson explores both toxic masculinity and positive masculinity in the media landscape, from Andrew Tate to the television show Brooklyn 99.
Language history and we: the case of “like”
The Oxford Etymologist considers “like” as discussed in Valerie Fridland’s “Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English.”
Etymology gleanings for June 2023
The Oxford Etymologist answers readers’ questions about American English vowels, the word “night”, and “love” in English and Greek.
Dangerous neighbors: “sore” and “sorrow”
Quite naturally, speakers connect words that sound alike. From a strictly scholarly point of view, “sore” and “sorrow” are unrelated, but for centuries, people thought differently, and folk etymology united the two long ago.
Helping verbs are curious, AND fascinating
English has a big bagful of auxiliary verbs. You may know these as helping verbs as they help the main verb express its meaning.
“Lying” in computer-generated texts: hallucinations and omissions
There is huge excitement about ChatGPT and other large generative language models that produce fluent and human-like texts in English and other human languages. But these models have one big drawback, which is that their texts can be factually incorrect (hallucination) and also leave out key information (omission).