For The Love Of Language
Ammon Shea wonders about our fear of reference books.
Doctor – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “doctor.”
A Plug-Ugly Relaxes And Plays Hookey, Or,
An Unnoticed Dutch Invasion
Anatoly Liberman looks into the Dutch origins of words.
Damp Squid: Hate Lists and Eggcorns
‘Damp Squid’ author Jeremy Butterfield on eggcorns and words we love to hate.
Reading Opening Lines
Ammon Shea has a reading dilemma.
Random – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “random”.
The Damp Squid Quiz: The Answers
The answers to yesterday’s Damp Squid quiz.
On Hobos, Hautboys, and Other Beaus
Anatoly explains why it is hard to find the origins of the word “hobo”.
The Damp Squid Quiz
A quiz on the original forms of common words and phrases.
Oxford Word of the Year 2008: Hypermiling
Do you keep the tires on your car properly inflated to maximize your gas mileage? Have you removed the roof rack to streamline the car and reduce drag? Do you turn your engine off rather than idle at long stoplights? If you said yes to any of these questions you just might be a ‘hypermiler’.
Winning Words and Losing Lingo
Ammon Shea looks at post-election words.
Bastard – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “bastard”.
Monthly Gleanings: October 2008, Part Two
Hello. In connection a previous post, I received two questions about the word ‘hello’. The first concerned the repertory of h-interjections in the languages of the world. In 1924 Ernst Schwentner brought out a booklet titled ‘The Primary Interjections in the Indo-European Languages’ (in German).
David Foster Wallace’s Contribution to the Writer’s Thesaurus
A look at what David Foster Wallace had to say about some of the words in the Writer’s Thesaurus.
Which words do you love to hate?
Tell us your least favourite words of 2008.
Building the Ultimate Spelling Bee
Ben Zimmer visits us from Visual Thesaurus.