I read Francine Prose‘s Reading like a Writer last winter on my pre-dawn morning commutes. And ever since, it has been on my list of books to share with you here on the Word Blog. That post will come soon—next week, in fact—but today’s post is about her appearance last night at the Toronto Public Library as part […]
Proofreaders’ Marks Unless you’re e. e. cummings or k.d. lang, you’re probably fond of using capital letters from time to time.* But what if you happen to miss one of them now and again? Well, you can easily turn a lowercase letter to a capital with a triple underline. Now, on occasion you may also […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Domicil’iate, v. to fix a place of residence. Word in the Wild: Well, I got the job, packed up all my stuff, arranged for the moving van, and now I’ve just got to domicliliate myself in my new neighbourhood. Here fix means something like install in. So if you’re domiciliating someone you’re getting […]
Lexical Vexations mantel n. the shelf above a fireplace. mantle n. a cloak. Words in the Wild: Wilhelmina was so chilled on that November evening that she gathered her ermine mantle around her shoulders and spent the whole of the night in conversation near the mantel. I most often see these two words mixed up […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Cacog’raphy, n. bad spelling. Word in the Wild: Cynthia had studied like mad, reviewing etymologies, rules, exceptions, and mnemonics until she’d made it here to the final round of the spelling bee. She began to spell altiloquence with aplomb, but when she uttered the letter k the erstwhile silent audience drew in a collective gasp […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Brev’iped, n. any thing with short legs. Word in the Wild: A description, hmm? Well now, let’s see… He’s brown, has a red collar, eats June bugs, answers to Ceasar, and I last saw him scurrying after his toy ball by the swing sets. Oh! And he’s a breviped. You can find a […]
Some of you may have seen this very impressive performance before, but it is so extremely funny that I doubt you will mind watching it again. And that is a very good thing since I’m too under the weather today to create new content for you, and since I could also use a good laugh. […]
Lexical Vexations addition n. the process of adding numbers; a thing that has been added. edition n. an issue of a newspaper or periodical; the form a publication takes (a hardcover edition). Words in the Wild: There was no doubt about it—Anna was a packrat. Among other things, she had a collection of broken coffeemakers, […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary The readers have spoken and voted 42% in favour of this week’s awesome Vest-Pocket word. Thanks to everyone who voted, and fear not—you may yet see the definitions of abecedarian and affabrous on this blog if you’re patient. Anacolu’thon, n. incoherence in a sentence. Word in the Wild: Anacoluthons in writing are about […]
Lexical Vexations vice n. a bad habit; immoral or criminal behaviour. vise n. a device that uses two adjustable surfaces to firmly pinch an object in place. Words in the Wild: Henry couldn’t see how spending all his weekends in the workshop was such a vice. After all, he enjoyed the smell of sawdust and […]