Sharon Medium originates from the Latin meaning middle, midst or means and this sense has carried through its various meanings. The 16th century meaning of intervening substance gave rise to the 19th century meaning of enveloping substance, a term often used in scientific experiments. Since the 18th century, medium has also meant intermediate agency (which no … Read more
Flabbergast (flăb’É™r-găst’) means to overwhelm with wonder or surprise. If you are flabbergasted, you are astonished with something. I’m flabbergasted — never has my flabber been so gasted! (Frankie Howerd) You, too, can make turkey chops at home and flabbergast your guests, but first you have some obstacles to overcome. (NY Times)
Onomatopoeia (on-O-mat-O-P-ya) is a word that’s hard to spell but easy to understand. Derived from the Greek words for name and making, onomatopoeia refers to the literary device of making words that imitate sounds. It’s a way to emphasize the sounds and it’s a technique we use often. In fact, many of us may not … Read more
If you’re reading every word of this post, then you’re in the minority. More than ten years ago, usability expert Jakob Neilsen published a paper called How Users Read On The Web. He began the paper by saying: ‘They don’t.’ Butterfly Readers Instead web users flit about like butterflies in a garden, pausing at anything … Read more
A friend recently pointed me to a linguistic term that I hadn’t seen before: eggcorn (or egg corn). It seems that in certain dialects eggcorn is a homonym for acorn, as Mark Liberman reported on the Language Log in September 2003. It turns out that there are hundreds of these eggcorns in common use. But … Read more
If you’re reading this blog, then you’ll be happy to know that we have our own day. The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), has designated March 4th National Grammar Day. The Society says it’s for ‘pen-toters appalled by wanton displays of Bad English’ and for ‘people who crave good, clean English’. We … Read more
Most people get into the writing business because they love to write. In fact, they can’t imagine doing anything else. However, when you write for a living, you may sometimes feel as if you’re writing by rote and as if the joy of writing has completely evaporated. Almost every freelance writer that I know has … Read more
My first introduction to the concept of eponyms was in high school. My English teacher talked about the ‘eponymous heroine’, meaning the protagonist after whom the book was named. Examples include Jane Eyre and Silas Marner. An eponym is a word that is formed from the name of a person. A famous example is the … Read more
The prefix dys- derives from the Greek and has a number of unfavourable meanings. In Greek, using this prefix denoted the opposite of anything that was easy, favourable or fortunate, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Etymology. Connotations include: impaired, defective, difficult, slow, wrong, ill, harsh, disordered and bad. There are a number of common … Read more
Most people who advise on writing tell you to check the spelling and grammar on your work. This is good advice. However, the trouble is that the tools we often use just aren’t up to the job. Many of us use Microsoft Word for writing, and its built-in spelling and grammar checker for checking our … Read more
Palindromes are words, phrases or number sequences that read the same way in both directions. Palindrome derives from the Greek for ‘running back again’. Both the Greeks and Romans are known to have enjoyed palindromes. The Greeks also published palindromic poetry. Common words that are palindromes include: civic eye level nun pop radar Some famous … Read more
Our calendar has changed a lot over the years, but in early Roman times there were only ten months. It was not until 700 BC that the last two months were added by Nuna Pompilus, Rome’s second king, and the calendar got a further shake up in 46 BC when Julius Caesar reformed it, changing … Read more