A friend alerted me to John McWhorter’s delightful essay “English is not normal” over at Aeon. Here’s how it begins: English + more
A friend alerted me to John McWhorter’s delightful essay “English is not normal” over at Aeon. Here’s how it begins: English + more
The Reverend Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, May 23, 1811: How very odd, dear Lady Holland, to ask me to + more
hebdomadal (adjective) Taking place, coming together, publishing, or appearing once a week; weekly. Arriving late to helveticka’s hebdomadal staff meeting, Aaron + more
This story is all kinds of stupid. But rather than delve into politics, let’s instead focus on that awful word in the + more
“At a time when almost everyone writes poetry but scarcely anyone can write a poem, it is hard not to + more
In One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook (Princeton University Press, 2015), Frank L. + more
Unwieldy? Or unwieldly? This is a tough one—because neither the correct word nor its root are all that common these days. We generally + more
“The sounds of the office are essentially sounds of paper and machines. Here are some of them, in a rough + more
tartle (verb; Scottish) To hesitate in recognizing a person or thing. “Good morning, Courtney,” said Aaron cheerfully as he arrived + more
“Just as much as synthesizers, hairspray and record sleeves in the Russian abstract style,” writes Paul Genders at TLS Online, + more
“No one ever taught me how to write, and I’ve never made a study of writing techniques. So how did + more
Wandering the aisles of Target over the weekend, I came across this curiosity: a section of products developed for the + more
The word lede is essentially journalism jargon for the introductory sentence or paragraph designed either to (a) provide all the + more
Following up on yesterday’s post, here are a couple of of my favorite homophones: discreet and discrete. What makes these particularly fun is that they’re + more