Is “Number” Singular or Plural?
A reader wants to know if “number” takes the verb “is” or “are.”
Hippo Words
A reader writes:
My office mates call me a hippocrite.
When I found this misspelling on a chat site, I started wondering if there might be a connection between hypocrite and the “hippo” words n English.
First Come, First Served
The expression first come, first served began life as a proverb having the same sense as the early bird catches the worm.
Both proverbs are admonitions against dawdling.
“Wracking” or “Racking” Your Brain?
Sherry Beth Connot writes:
Every time I read how someone wracked their brain, I think it should
be racked, and according to my dictionary it should. Can you
explain why wracked is being used this way?
Does Web Usage Matter?
Nuscha took me to task the other day for citing Google search results in my discussion of free rein and the frequent mistaken rendering of it as “free reign.”
Writing the Century
Melvin Merzon sets me this multi-part question:
How would you write “21st Century”? In a legal document? In a business letter? In fiction? In a nonfiction context?
Trouble with “Vigorously” and “Vicariously”
So far I haven’t found it in an article by a professional journalist (thank goodness), but in the course of my web browsing I have discovered the created word “vigariously.”
Words for Saintly Golden Light
Everyone’s familiar with the word halo in the sense of a circle of light behind or above the head of a saintly person in a painting. This post offers some synonyms.
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