A Willing Suspension of Disbelief
The origin of this expression lies in literary criticism. The term represents a contract between reader and writer. In recent […]
Euerergetism, Paraprosdokian, and Organleptic
These three words have nothing to do with each other. They’re just interesting. Euerergetism The first time I encountered euerergetism […]
Another “Kryptonite” Issue: who vs whom
Many of the AP Stylebook users who responded to the Grammar Day Twitter question (AP Quiz Top Two Anathemas ) […]
The 7 Deadly Sins and Their Synonyms
Traditional views about religion and sin may be in decline, but the human behavior catalogued as the Seven Deadly Sins […]
Awkward and Untoward
Both these adjectives are in frequent use on the web: awkward: about 163,000,000 hits in a Google search untoward: about […]
Words and Expressions from Poker
Perhaps the quintessential American card game, poker gained its first popularity on the riverboats and in the saloons of the […]
Conjuring and Cancelling with Cancel Culture
Like the term political correctness, cancel culture has become an incantation to conjure with. conjure: To invoke by supernatural power, […]
Two Literary Syndromes—AWS and OHS
Several fictional characters are so memorable that their names have been attached to physical and psychological maladies. Some of the […]
AP Quiz Top Two Anathemas
On March 4 this year, National Grammar Day, the AP Stylebook editors tweeted a question for their readers: What grammar […]
Shakespeare—for All Time
According to T. S. Eliot, April was :the cruellest month.” For me, April is Shakespeare’s month, a time to reread […]
How to Pronounce the digraph AE in English
In English, the digraph ae functions chiefly as a suffix to denote the plural of Latin borrowings that retain a […]
The Preposition “Amid”
This post was prompted by a headline in the Washington Post: US deports former Nazi guard whose wartime role was […]