“Penpointing” and Other Near-Misses in the Media
Penpointing for pinpointing In my part of the world, many speakers have a hard time hearing the difference between the […]
Proofreading and Its Pitfalls
Every writer has had the experience of submitting a piece of writing in the certainty that it is free of […]
Calques: Linguistic Immigrants in English
English vocabulary includes thousands of words that originated in languages other than Old English. Some of these linguistic immigrants never […]
Sarcastic vs. Sardonic vs. Facetious
Reader ApK has asked for a discussion of the words sarcastic, sardonic, and facetious— all examples of verbal irony. verbal […]
Epistemology vs Agnotology
Once upon a time, I encountered the word epistemology and its forms only in academic writing. Lately, I’ve been seeing […]
“Become” and a Question of Syntax
A sentence in a biographical piece in the Washington Post about the gifted librettist Randy Rainbow got me thinking about […]
Code-switching Is Not Cultural Oppression
Until recently, I thought that most English teachers shared my view that mastering a standard form of English is the […]
Autogolpe —Another Word for Seizing Power
During the recent unsettled times, I have come across a new word (new to me) to describe an extralegal maneuver […]
“To Cow” and “To Kow-tow”
Although the idiom to be cowed has nothing to do with Elsie the Cow, the use of corralled in a […]
Addicted “to,” not “with”
Some verbs and participle adjectives are followed by a specific preposition. Different from phrasal verbs, which can be replaced by […]
Do You Mean Limbo or Purgatory?
A while back, I made a note of a radio announcer’s comment that Edward Snowden, who had been granted asylum […]
Gifts of the Magi—Linguistically Speaking
A ubiquitous symbol of the Christmas season is the image of the Magi, the “wise men from the east” mentioned […]