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When linguists talk about prosody, the term usually refers to aspects of speech that go beyond individual vowels and consonants such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. Such suprasegmental features may reflect the tone or focus of a sentence.
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
The Oxford Etymologist has examined the verbs “begin” and “start.” For consistency’s sake, it is now necessary to say something about the noun and the verb “end.”
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
The Oxford Etymologist has examined the verbs “begin” and “start.” For consistency’s sake, it is now necessary to say something about the noun and the verb “end.”
The Oxford Etymologist explores the origin of the verb “to start”.
Now the dust has settled on another eventful year, it’s time to look back on some of the words that characterised 2022.
The Oxford Etymologist explores the unfinished story of the word “begin”.
English noun phrases have something called a “temporal interpretation.” That’s linguist-speak for how we understand their place in time relative to the tense of the verb.
In this blog post, the Oxford Etymologist responds to questions from readers on word borrowing across Hebrew, Greek, and Germanic, plus a few new etymology ideas.
The fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage has recently been published by OUP. I was happy to talk to Bryan Garner—who was declared a “genius” by the late David Foster Wallace—about what it means to write a usage dictionary.
Some words propagate like mushrooms: no roots but a sizable crowd of upstarts calling themselves relatives. Gr-words are the pet subject of all works on sound imitation and sound symbolism.
The Oxford Etymologist the common but etymologically opaque verb “mope”, and other monosyllabic verbs.
The Oxford Etymologist explores a selection of idioms, including the amazing story of the phrase “fox’s wedding.”
Are you setting goals for 2023? Check out our quiz for book recommendations based on your resolutions for the new year!
Reading Dan Chaon’s novel Sleepwalk last summer, I noticed his use of the verb itch to mean scratch.