A reader wonders about the terms Anglos and Saxons: I have often heard the term Anglo-Saxon, but never just Anglos or Saxons. However, I learned that these are two separate people groups from different areas (of what I guess is Northern Europe). If what I learned is accurate, from what countries are the Anglos, and … Read more
New words for me this week are offendotron and microagression. Both relate to a much-discussed topic: giving and taking offense. I found the word offendotron in an article by Martin Daubney. I couldn’t find it in either the OED or Merriam-Webster, but the Urban Dictionary defines it: offendotron: Person offended by anything, however innocuous. Like … Read more
A reader objects to the expression “a mutual friend”: I don’t care if Dickens did write a novel called Our Mutual Friend. Using “mutual” to describe a friend you didn’t know was also a friend of someone else is a misuse of the word. Mutual and reciprocal both mean, “directed toward each other.” For example, … Read more
In compiling a list of the top ten confused words, it’s difficult to choose between simple misspellings and words whose meanings are mixed up in the mind of the writer. For example, the word altar (raised structure for sacrifice) is frequently misspelled as alter. The writer probably knows the difference between the noun altar and … Read more
A reader wonders about the American pronunciation of the word mobile: When Americans refer to the thing that all of us carry around as our personal digital appendage, they rhyme it with “bill.” The rest of the world (i.e., where I live) pronounce it to rhyme it with “bile.” I’m not talking about the adjective … Read more
When two or more things are parallel, they have a similar function, role or structure. In grammar, “parallel structure” refers to the balanced construction of a sentence. A balanced sentence will present the items in a series by using the same grammatical form for each item in the series. For example, if the first item … Read more
A reader asks, Does the expression “Curry Favour” have anything to do with curry? Short answer: “No.” But the long answer is pretty cool. The gastronomical word curry derives from a Tamil word for sauce, whereas, the curry in the expression “to curry favour/favor” is a verb meaning “to comb a horse.” curry (noun): A … Read more
The word issue has been used with various meanings since the Middle Ages. For most of that time, English speakers have talked about issues, but rarely have they had issues. Issue derives from classical Latin exitus: “to go out.” The noun issue can refer to the action of flowing out, as in the medical sense … Read more
A reader asks, Could you please explain the roots of the word “grassroots”? I sometimes wonder what the connection between people and grass is! Grass has a great deal to do with people. Grass is a powerful archetypal symbol that works at the unconscious level to stir a variety of emotions. In his short, emotionally … Read more
The Latin verb diffundere, “to pour in different directions,” gives us the noun diffusion, the verb diffuse, and the adjective diffuse. The noun and the adjective present few difficulties, but the verb is often used ambiguously or incorrectly. Note: The si in diffusion represents the zh sound. The adjective is pronounced with a soft s … Read more
One function of the hyphen is to prevent misreading. For example, the shortened form of the noun meaning “an enterprise or organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services” is co-op, to distinguish it from the English word coop: “a cage or small enclosure for poultry or other small animals.” … Read more
When a reader kindly pointed out that I’d misspelled minuscule in a post, my first reaction was puzzlement. I’d written about “a miniscule difference,” meaning “a tiny difference.” I spelled the word the way I pronounce it: min-i-SKYOOL. On the other hand, the term minuscule is in my vocabulary. I know that Carolingian minuscule is … Read more