Some of the most intriguing words in the English language are what linguists call fossil words, so named because they are artifacts from another era and survive only in isolated usage. Here is a list of some of our language’s fossil words with definitions and the idiomatic phrases in which they appear: 1. Ado: bother … Read more
The six colors of the spectrum have contributed significantly to expressions and turns of phrase that are themselves often quite colorful. Here’s a sampling of idioms employing the words for colors. Red Because of the association of the color red with danger and deficits, most idioms that include the word red — for example, “in … Read more
The English language is remarkably adaptable, but one idiosyncrasy of this flexibility in particular creates complications for writers and speakers: collateral adjectives, those not based on and therefore not resembling their associated nouns. English has several forms, including the related suffixes -like and -ly, to signal an adjective’s relationship to a noun, but more elegant … Read more
What’s the difference between estimate and guess? The distinction between the two words is one of the degree of care taken in arriving at a conclusion. Estimate is from the Latin word aestimare, meaning “to value.” That term is also the origin of estimable, which means “capable of being estimated” or “worthy of esteem” (but … Read more
One of the many compensating charms of the often infuriating English language is the ease with which speakers and writers may exercise creativity and inventiveness. One of its most inventive components is the portmanteau word — one formed by combining two words into a single (and often deprecating and/or ironically humorous) term that denotes a … Read more
English is a flexible enough language that a set of words can be ordered in any of several ways to communicate the same idea. However, in writing — as in many other human endeavors — just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Here are five sentences rendered more effective by positioning the most important … Read more
Humans, being social animals, have many reasons for meeting — and many words to describe doing so in various degrees of formality and format. Here are thirty ways to label a meeting, depending on the particulars. 1. Assembly: a meeting for entertainment, legislation, or worship 2. Caucus: a meeting, often in a political context, to … Read more
So, you think you want to work for a certain company or in a particular profession in a specific position or department. How do you know for sure? How do you find out? Conducting informational interviews is a good place to start. What’s an informational interview? It’s a meeting with someone in a position, department, … Read more
What, exactly, is a coup, and how many kinds of coups are there? This post describes a variety of phrases using the word, plus an array of related terms. Coup, a word for a sudden bold and/or brilliant act — it also serves as a truncation of “coup d’état” — comes from the French word … Read more
Chances are that your job involves some writing, but perhaps demonstrating that skill doesn’t constitute enough of your workload, or it’s not the type of writing you’d like to do. Or perhaps you’re still in college, or have a job that doesn’t involve writing any more complicated than signing your time sheet. Regardless of your … Read more
Reduplicative doublets are a small class of idioms in which a word is repeated after the conjunction and; such repetition is intended to provide an emphatic boost to a statement. Here are fifteen such constructions with definitions and sample sentences. 1. Again and again: repeatedly (“I practiced the maneuver again and again so that I … Read more
I received the following email message recently. Actually, it went to my spam folder, but other recipients may not be so fortunate — or so discerning about its deceptive nature. But if you read carefully, you’ll find plenty of clues that the writer is not a native speaker of English, much less an FBI agent. … Read more