Win a copy of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much I’m always on the hunt for great books to read, so I’ve decided that for this giveaway I’m going to get you to tell me about your favourite book. Just leave a comment on this post, including the title and author of the book […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Quod’libet, n. a nice point for discussion. Word in the Wild: Their discussion came to a standstill after Monique’s shocking confession, and the party goers looked desperately about for someone to save them from the conversational vacuum that followed. Lucky for them, Punam was in attendance and saved them all by tossing out […]
Lexical Vexations wet 1. adj. soaked with or coverd by liquid. 2. v. to cause to be soaked with or covered by liquid. whet v. to sharpen, both literally (as in to whet a knife) and figuratively (as in to whet one’s appetite). Words in the Wild: Nancy’s curiosity was whetted when she saw the […]
Twists & Turns of Phrase The last straw or final straw is a problem or annoyance that on its own would be a trifling matter, but that, when added to series of previous irks and irritations, seems intolerable. This turn of phrase originated in the longer proverb the last straw breaks the camel’s back, a […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Pleonas’tic, adj. containing unnecessary words. Word in the Wild: Say what you will about Aunt Vera’s cell phone addiction, but I still prefer her 140-character texts to all the pleonastic emails she used to send. The OED says this word dates back to 1776, but the noun pleonasm, meaning the use of too many […]
Recommended Read Ghomeshi, Jila. Grammar Matters: The Social Significance of How We Use Language. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2010. [ISBN-13: 978-1894037-44-0] If English is going to hell in a hand basket, how is it that there are so many rigidly prescriptive grammar guides in bookstores? I sometimes wonder about this when hunting between such guides for books like […]
Lexical Vexations defuse v. to disarm a bomb or, more metaphorically, a tense situation. diffuse adj. spread or scattered over an area. Words in the Wild: There wouldn’t have been a diffuse pink mist in the room if the secret agent had managed to defuse the bomb in time. Still vexed? You can find a […]
The past couple of weeks I’ve been wandering around in Sydney, Australia, so it seems fitting to make today’s post a roundup of fun and informative links about the ways that English happens down here. The Macquarie Dictionary and ABC bring you the Australian Word Map, where you can learn about all sorts of Australian […]
Twists & Turns of Phrase Something that’s beyond the black stump is beyond or outside the realm of civilized life. This Australian idiom or saying originated with the colonial-era habit of setting a charred stump of wood as a landmark for travellers. It made sense that travellers who continued beyond every charred marker were entering a […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Oxyph’ony, n. shrillness of voice. Word in the Wild: Alex wanted to enter the political life but was held back by a devastating case of oxyphony. This word hails from at least 1769, according to the OED, and is a compound of oxy-, meaning keen, sharp or acid, and -phony, meaning sound or […]