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January 2, 2021 by libroshombre
LIBRARIAN COLUMN Contact Greg Hill, 479-4344 December 31, 2020 Xenophon, the Greek mercenary and historian, left a fascinating account …
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Category: ancient history, history, librarians, word origins, writing
| Tags: Anabasis, Greece, Landmark Ancient Histories, marginalia, mercenaries, Persia, Robert F. Strassler, Xenophon
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December 21, 2017 by libroshombre
Pliny the Elder could have been describing current times when he declared, “The only certainty is that nothing is certain.” …
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Category: accents, dictionaries, English language, language, Uncategorized, word origins, words
| Tags: cock, DARE, Dictionary of American Regional English, eggcorn, mondegreen, sockeye
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March 24, 2017 by libroshombre
“Malarky!” was one of my father’s favorite epithets for things he deemed phony or exaggerated. I heard it all …
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Category: publishing, sayings, Uncategorized, word origins
| Tags: malarkey, project gutenberg, TAD, Thomas Aloysius Dorgan
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December 2, 2016 by libroshombre
The term “culprit” has been on my mind since I lost most of a recent powerpoint presentation due to …
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Category: dictionaries, language, Uncategorized, word origins, words
| Tags: Anu Garg, Beverly Cleary, buckle, Dictionary of American Regional English, Noah Webster, OED, oxford english dictionary
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August 30, 2016 by libroshombre
Those immersed in the reading life know an engrossing dance of words and concepts can induced by good writing, …
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Category: books, reading, reading well, Uncategorized, vocabulary, word origins, words, writing, writing well
| Tags: browsing, deep reading, Dorothy Parker, ferrinaceous, neatsfoot oil, Owen Barfield, P. G. Wodehouse, patrick O'Brian, poetic diction, proto-Germanic
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June 30, 2016 by libroshombre
A number of articles about synesthesia have cropped up lately. Reading Vladimir Nabakov’s wonderful memoir, “Speak Memory,” revealed his …
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Category: behavior, brain, synesthesia, Uncategorized, word origins, words
| Tags: argle-bargle, libraries, misophonia, Vladimir Nabakov, word aversion
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June 3, 2016 by libroshombre
A recent visit to central Texas revealed that sensible rains have returned there after a half-decade of severe drought. The …
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Category: dictionaries, English language, etymology, insects, public libraries, Uncategorized, word origins, words
| Tags: american heritage dictionary, dictionaries, fireflies, frequentatives, intensifiers, kamishibai, lightning bugs, summer reading program, Texas, unpaired words
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April 6, 2015 by libroshombre
Ralph Waldo Emerson described studiers of word origins this way: “The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once …
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Category: etymology, word origins, words
| Tags: baseball, casey at the bat, ernest thayer, etyymology, grantland rice, scoundrel, words
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July 10, 2014 by libroshombre
The old Scottish poet Allan Cunningham once wrote about a time “when looks were fond and words were few.” That …
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Category: communication, etymology, sports, word origins, words
| Tags: communication, etymology, football, henry iv, recency, slang, soccer, words