Both complacent and complaisant descend from Latin complacere, “to please, to be pleasant,” but they have acquired different meanings in English. complacent (adjective): feeling or showing pleasure or satisfaction, especially in one’s own conditions; self-satisfied. complacence/complacency (noun): the state of being pleased. The nouns complacence and complacency convey the idea of self-satisfaction accompanied by a … Read more
Most of the English words that begin with hex are scientific terms used by mathematicians, chemists, and medical practitioners. A few, however, are encountered in general use. As a combining form in English, hex- means six. hexagon In geometry, a hexagon is a plane figure having six sides and six angles. The adjective is hexagonal. … Read more
Since ancient times, speakers of every language have made up nonsense syllables to indicate contempt for what other people were saying to them. We’ve even inherited the ancient Greek nonsense syllables bar-bar-bar in the word barbarian: The Greek word barbaros meant “foreign, strange, ignorant.” According to the OnlineEtymology Dictionary, the word barbaros was an onomatopoeic … Read more
I went through elementary school in the bad old days, when teachers drilled the class on irregular verbs. For example: Teacher: go Student A: go, went, have gone Teacher: come Student B: come, came, have come Teacher: write Student C: write, wrote, have written I don’t recall when the drills began, but I’m pretty sure … Read more
The letter s represents two sounds in English, the unvoiced sound /s/ heard in sister, and the voiced sound /z/ heard in rose. Note: The “voiced” s sound buzzes, like the sound of /z/. The unvoiced s sound is “soft,” like the hiss of a snake. When the spelling combination -ise occurs in verbs and … Read more
A prepositional error usually associated with ESL learners seems to be gaining ground with native English speakers. It’s the error of following the verb arrive with the preposition to: The 23-year-old actress arrived to her taping of The Tonight Show… sporting a long blonde beard to match her hair. When many early Europeans first arrived to our shores, they were … Read more
My introduction to the term steampunk came when I read what I thought was a mystery with a historical setting and came to the part where Queen Victoria was hooked up to a steam-powered life-support machine. You’d better believe that I flipped frantically to the back cover to find a clue to what I was … Read more
The bridge is one of the most basic human concepts. A tiny child playing with sticks and puddles knows to build a bridge. Not surprisingly, the word bridge, as both noun and verb, has found its way into numerous idioms and expressions. A bridge is a structure forming or carrying a road over a river, … Read more
The Pied Piper is a character in a German folk tale popularized in English by Robert Browning in his poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” In Browning’s version, a town corporation hires the Piper to rid their town of a plague of rats. They agree to pay what the Piper asks. When the rats are … Read more
A lever is a simple tool, a bar of iron or a sturdy length of wood that may be used to move or dislodge something heavy. Leverage is the mechanical advantage gained by a person using a lever. According to Archimedes, the power of a lever is formidable: “Give me a place to stand and … Read more
Some speakers, perhaps because of their familiarity with the word disposal in connection with trash, seem to have trouble with the polite idiom “at your disposal.” For example, I saw this comment on a Yahoo forum: “If you are at their disposal, it is derogatory and demeaning.” Disposal and its different forms descend from Latin … Read more
At one time, metal and mettle were alternative spellings for the material or substance a thing was made of. Classical Latin metallum had the meaning of mine or quarry as well as the substances obtained from them. Metal is a hard, shiny, malleable material like gold, silver, or copper that is used in the manufacture … Read more