Lexical Vexations rain 1. n. liquid water that falls from the sky; 2. v. to fall from the sky as water. reign 1. v. to rule over a kingdom; 2. n. a period of time during which a particular ruler or family controls a kingdom. rein 1. n. a usually leather strap attached to a […]
Proofreaders’ Marks Hyphens are a handy sort of punctuation. You can use them to stick two words together or to break a word down to size at a line break. But, as you can imagine, a little red hyphen between two letters could be easily missed. That’s why we use the proofreaders’ mark for a […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Valetudina’rian, a. sickly; weak. Word in the Wild: Jeffery called in “sick” again. I know I should be more charitable, but it’s just hard to believe that he’s that valetudinarian. Valetudinarian comes from the Latin valetudinarius, meaning infirm. You can find a complete listing of the Word Blog’s Vest-Pocket Vocabulary entries and learn […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary U’berous, a. fruitful; abundant. Word in the Wild: As she wandered the supermarket with her all-too-light change purse and empty belly, it seemed to Wanda that the store’s monolithic shelves and uberous offerings must have been designed just to taunt her. You can find a complete listing of the Word Blog’s Vest-Pocket Vocabulary […]
The end of August saw the end of an era for Toronto book lovers when Pages Books and Magazines closed its doors for the last time. There was never a time that I went into Pages and left without at least one book, and while I could say that of a few other bookstores, too, […]
Lexical Vexations peddle v. to sell. pedal 1. n. a lever pressed by the foot to operate a machine. 2. v. to use a pedal. petal n. a kind of leaf used by plants to attract pollinators, often brightly coloured. Words in the Wild: The man was peddling beautiful flowers, each of whose petals gave […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Tap’lush, n. poor beer. Word in the Wild: You should really try refocillating with a finer beer—I wouldn’t water my plants with that taplush. Just today I had a conversation with a co-worker about how we’re both beer snobs: I am pretty particular about what I’ll drink, while she’s so particular she won’t […]
Lexical Vexations flare n. 1. a sudden, bright light; 2. a sudden outburst. flair n. talent, stylishness. Words in the Wild: Something of a loose cannon, Justin had a flair for the melodramatic, and at the slightest provocation his temper would flare. This lexical vexation cropped up at work today, and not for the first […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Smegmat’ic, a. soapy, cleansing. Word in the Wild: Are you sure you rinsed this cup properly? My tea tastes awfully smegmatic. Smegmatic comes from the Greek smegma, meaning a detergent, soap, or unguent. I think it’s such a fun word to say a bunch of times in a row, having an aptly slippery […]
Proofreaders’ Marks Italics come in handy: they’re great for emphasis, for foreign words, for titles of books and movies, for words as words, and more. So how do you add italics to roman text? You simply underline the words you’d like italicized. When you’re pressed for time and underlining like the wind it’s not unusual […]