At the high school where I substitute teach, an English teacher has a poster for the National Sarcasm Society. Their symbol is a jackass and their slogan is “Like We Need Your Support.” Actually, there is a Sarcasm Society (https://www.sarcasmsociety.com/) and there’s plenty of “National Sarcasm Society” merchandise available on Amazon.com. I suppose this can
We all know that English is a flexible language, as in google becoming a verb. Yet some say it needs to be even more flexible — there is a word for being behind in your work (backlog), but what’s the word for forging ahead? A more pertinent example is the quest for a gender-neutral, third-person
How many words are there in the English language? I’ve seen estimates ranging from 400,000 to as many as a million if you count all the scientific and technical terms, although a quick Google search says the Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (https://wordcounter.io/blog/how-many-words-are-in-the-english-language/). No matter who is counting, a
One way to keep up with what’s happening is to follow word trends, According to Merriam-Webster, here are some of the words people have been looking up recently. Kangaroo Court — Inquiries jumped 11,000% on October 8 after President Trump described the congressional impeachment hearings as “a totally compromised kangaroo court.” Merriam-Webster’s definition is either “a
As a history nerd, I’ve often wondered how any war could be considered civil. I’ve recently found a logical explanation, and it goes all the way back to the Roman Empire. Recall how most English words have more than one meaning. So it is with civil. The first definitions we usually think of are “quiet
The English language is fascinating, especially regarding the way new words are formed and how meanings evolve. Take “meme.” According to Merriam-Webster, the current meaning is “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) that is spread widely online especially through social media.” But the word itself isn’t new. It actually goes
September 11 was the birthday of William Sydney Porter, better know by his pen name O. Henry. Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1862, he is my favorite short-story writer, and his personal life was quite a story in itself. His birthday was remembered in The Writer’s Almanac of September 11, 2019 — As a young
With so many words in the English language (I’ve seen estimates of from 400,000 to a million), there are some interesting origin stories. For example, boilerplate. According Merriam-Webster, boilerplate can mean a syndicated material supplied especially to weekly newspapers in matrix or plate form, or standardized text, especially formulaic or hackneyed language. These meanings originated in the
A fascinating part of the English language is the origin of common expressions. For example, all my life I’ve heard phrases like “I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Until recently, I never stopped to wonder exactly what a jiffy was. Now i know — A jiffy is actually a unit of time. But like everything
The start of another busy week, so I thought it would be appropriate to share some humor a friend sent me. Have a good week! How Children Perceive Their Grandparents. 1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she’d done many times before. After she