Dictionaries & Lexicography

Still in the Bottleneck, or, Chasing for the First Fiasco

Anatoly examines the origin of the word fiasco.

How the Protocharlatan Escaped Justice

This story might be titled “Some Words Have a Reputation to Live Up To,” (Part Two). While tracing the convoluted history of ‘charade’, I promised to devote some space to ‘charlatan’. The element ‘char-‘ unites them, and in scholarly works they have frequently been mentioned in one breath.

Monthly Gleanings

Anatoly answers questions posed in March.

Absurd entries in the OED: an introduction by Ammon Shea

By Ammon Shea

All dictionaries have mistakes. Ghost words creep in, there are occasional misspellings, or perhaps the printer was hung over one day and misplaced some punctuation. In addition to these normal forms of human error there are others that are created by language, as it continues its inexorable change.

Some Words Have A Reputation To Live Up To

It is not fortuitous that many words like ‘puzzle’, ‘conundrum’, and ‘quiz’ are themselves puzzles from an etymological point of view. They arose as slang, sometimes as student slang, and as we don’t know the circumstances in which they were coined, our chances of discovering their origin is low.

Wild Honey With and Without Locusts

Two opposite forces act on the brain of someone who sets out to trace the origin of a word. To cite the most famous cases, coward is supposedly a “corruption” of cowherd and sirloin came into being when an English king dubbed an edible loin at table (Sir Loin). Such fantasies have tremendous appeal.

Hubba-Hubba

Anatoly searches for the origin of hubba-hubba.

Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Insipient v. Incipient

Garner teaches us how to correctly use insipient and incipient.