There are anywhere from 400,000 to a million words in the English language, and they can be organized in any number of ways. One of the latest is to divide words into three tiers. Tier One consists of the basic words. These are words like book, girl, and dog and usually have only one meaning. There
Did you know languages can be grouped into “families”? For example, English is a Germanic language, and the Romance Family includes Latin and all its derivatives, including Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. I was thinking about this during my recent trip to Japan. To a Westerner like me, the writing systems in Asia all look
English is full of interesting words. For example, the popular shade of blue known as turquoise comes from a French term that means “Turkish stone.” Some thought incorrectly that these stones all came from Turkey. While turquoise was in fact traded in Turkey, the true origin of these bluish gems was probably Iran or the
I was surprised to learn recently that the debate about who wrote the plays and verse attributed to William Shakespeare is still alive. My question “Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets?” got 259,000 hits on Google. The main problem seem to be the lack of recordkeeping. We simply don’t know that much about the man,
Word meanings can have fascinating histories. For example, the heavily armored vehicle was named a “tank” to disguise its true purpose. There are oil tanks, water tanks, etc, so who would expect one that moves and shoots back? Here’s a more contemporary example. Why are unmanned aircraft called drones? I found one explanation in the
I think there is a technical term for everything. I’m sure you’re familiar with this symbol: ¶ If (unlike me) you’ve ever wondered what it is, it’s a pilcrow and it has a long history. According to Wikipedia, it can be used as an indent for separate paragraphs or to designate a new paragraph in one
Previously I have discussed the English language and the origins of some words. I’ve found another one. From the Writer’s Almanac, March 23, 2015 — “It’s the birthday of the writer Josef Capek (books by this author), born in Hronov in what is now the Czech Republic in 1887. His brother, Karel, was the famous writer,
In a earlier post, I had asked if English had enough words. This week I found a new word that has been newly invented. What do you call people who are more than friends? How about framily? That’s combining friends and family. I found this in the April 2015 issue of Runner’s World magazine
Previously I’d mentioned the importance of learning new words. And the fascinating thing about language is it’s always evolving. New words are created, meanings change, and new meanings are added. How many words in English have only one meaning? Not many, I would guess. My favorite example of how a word’s meaning can change is
I’ve mentioned earlier about encouraging students to use a dictionary. February 1st was the anniversary of publication of the first part of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1884. According to the February 1, 2015 email from The Writer’s Almanac, It covered from “A” to “Ant.” The Philological Society of London had conceived the
