Another of Daniel’s great words of the day, mettle, provoked readers’ comments that have in turn prompted me to get into the act. Reader’s Comment 1 Mettle can also mean the “stuff of which a person is made.” So if I say I’m made of mettle, people won’t think I’m a robot (or, more likely, … Read more
Harangue is a long speech addressed to a large public assembly. Usually the speech is an offensive one (i.e., a verbal attack), but the word can also indicate pompous or tedious speeches. But what started as a spat at a teenage sleepover swiftly escalated into a three-month harangue of threatening e-mails and defacement of her … Read more
Ben writes: I have noticed the changing in usage of words. When I was growing up “to swipe a card” (credit cards were not around then) meant to steal it and now you see the term “swipe the customer’s card.” No one’s quite sure where this word swipe originated. It’s kin to sweep and swoop. … Read more
Placid is an adjective that means pleased, peaceful or quiet. It comes from the Latin placidus. There is also a lake called Lake Placid, northeast of New York. The measure, which is on hold in the state Senate, generated some of the largest rallies ever seen at the normally placid Capitol earlier this year. (USA … Read more
We writers often have to contend with compound words that begin their life as two words only to eventually morph into one. “Backyard” is a good example. It originally was two words, “back yard,” used to describe the area behind a house. Sometime in the mid-1600s, it successfully made the transition to a single compound … Read more
Here’s a question from Caro that cites a usage for whet that I’ve never heard: I have recently seen several people using the word “whet” in place of the word “wet”. (In one case, I asked a friend if she’d meant to say “wet” but she said it can also be used as a ‘dirtier’ … Read more
Knotty is an adjective used to describe something with many knots. It can also be used figuratively to express something difficult, intricate or complex. For several months, the future of those sleek Jaguar saloons and robust all-terrain Land Rovers, symbols of a once-great British motor industry, seemed to hang in the balance as Tata, parent … Read more
This is a guest post by Shelley M. DuPont. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here. Every time I write, I discover something more about myself. I don’t always see it immediately; but I begin to notice a pattern developing. Recently, I wrote a feature article and realized that … Read more
Aika writes: What does it mean when one says “exercise in ambiguity”? A friend said she hated attaching files to her emails because it was an exercise in ambiguity. I know she meant something absolutely negative, but I want to know the exact meaning. I wrote a post with the the title “An Exercise in … Read more
Bilk is a transitive verb which means to cheat, to elude or to evade payment. It can also be used as a noun, where it means either a person who cheats or the cheat itself. O.K., not the exact same thing. My stepfather isn’t crafty enough to bilk people out of $65 billion. He got … Read more
When most of us were in school, our English teachers made a point of forbidding us to begin a sentence with “and” or “but.” It’s one of those lessons that stuck, and writers today go to extreme lengths to avoid it. Is it really forbidden, though? Or is it just a myth? Grammar experts universally … Read more
I am still in high school and therefore (due to AP classes) have little or no time to write. I have tried to make time to write at least half a page every day (not a continuing story, just whatever comes to mind at the time) and I cannot even find time to do THAT! … Read more