The Roman god Janus–the personification of a Latin word meaning “doorway”–was depicted as having two faces, each pointing in opposite directions. He was the god of doorways and gateways, beginnings and endings. The term “Janus words” is applied to words that can mean opposites. A common example is the verb cleave, which can mean either, … Read more
After reading my recent article on caretakers and caregivers, a reader asks, How about explaining the particular use of another kind of “taker”—-an undertaker, as in mortician or funeral director. If the business that is being “undertaken” [is] that of burying the dead, why don’t we call other professional services such as banker, realtor, physician, … Read more
In a recent post I discussed the letter c and the sounds it represents in English words. I said that the English letter c “does not have a sound of its own.” A reader pointed out that in other languages that use the Roman alphabet, c has a distinctive, palatal sound. So it has, and … Read more
A reader wants to know if the abbreviations i.e. and e.g. should be followed by a comma. i.e.: from the Latin phrase id est, “that is.” Used in English to restate a previous word or expression: “He really enjoys a good bildungsroman, i.e., coming-of-age novel.” e.g.: from the Latin phrase exempli gratia, “for the sake … Read more
Although the hoi polloi (i.e., the masses) use the words Web and Internet interchangeably, there is a difference worth learning. The Internet existed before the Web. The first meaning of internet as it relates to computing was “a computer network consisting of or connecting a number of smaller networks, such as two or more local … Read more
A reader asks: Emigrate, immigrate, migrate. What is the proper usage of these words? It seems like the [use] is indiscriminate. All three words trace their origin to the Latin verb migrare, “to remove from one place to another.” This common ancestor gives English four verbs: migrate: to move, either temporarily or permanently, from one … Read more