Category Archives: words
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Prisoners, Language Disrupters, and the Beach Boys
Leave a commentAugust 20, 2015 by libroshombre
“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary,” according to Khalil Gibran. …
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Little Words, Ngrams, and Emoji
Leave a commentJuly 7, 2015 by libroshombre
“It’s the little details that are vital,” according to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who added, “Little things make …
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Pronouncing, Vocabulary Building, and Murals
Leave a commentJuly 3, 2015 by libroshombre
“Pronunciation Errors That Changed Modern English” was a fascinating TheGuardian.com article posted by David Shariatmadari in 2014. He noted that …
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Fact-checking, Skepticism, and Keeping Ahead of Computers
Leave a commentJune 3, 2015 by libroshombre
The origin of the word “debunking” came up in this space recently, and today I’m interested in debunking a myth …
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Language Maps, Persistent Words, and Stereotypical Incomprehensibility
Leave a commentApril 27, 2015 by libroshombre
“25 Maps That Explain the English Language” is a marvelously informative way to look at our Mother Tongue. It’s difficult …
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Ultraconserved Words, Sweet Peltrichor, and Short-Sighted Leaders
Leave a commentApril 20, 2015 by libroshombre
Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum once said, “In the end we will conserve only what we love.” If so, we must …
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Enticements of Etymology, Origins of Scoundrels, and Casey Gets a Hit
Leave a commentApril 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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Library Litotes, Data-Overload, and the Pollyanna Hypothesis
Leave a commentMarch 24, 2015 by libroshombre
There are more than a few books in our public library, and its print books aren’t going away anytime soon. …
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Counting Words, Appreciating Hyphens, and Loathing Lowth
Leave a commentMarch 9, 2015 by libroshombre
Every word counts in the world of publishing. Successful short stories writers make less than novelists, since their work amounts …
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Torturous Aphibologies, Poor Webster, and Scrooge McDuck’s Taxes
Leave a commentFebruary 3, 2015 by libroshombre
Judging by our national debate over the subject, “torture” is one of those terms whose meaning seems to depend on …
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