Sharon I love the Christmas season. The process of decorating, choosing gifts with care, preparing seasonal food and spending time with friends and family really appeals to me. With that in mind, here are the origins of some popular seasonal words. decorate Meaning to adorn, decorate dates from the 16th century. However, its seasonal meaning of … Read more
Pedantry or laxity? Upholding standards or lapsing into colloquialism? When it comes to using hopefully, these are the terms that are often thrown around. Here’s why. As an adverb, hopefully originally meant in a hopeful manner (example: the dog waited hopefully for a bone) and that is still the primary meaning given in most dictionaries. … Read more
The word Christmas has been around for centuries. Some dictionaries say it belongs to the late Old English period; others that it dates back to the 12th century. Old forms include cristes masse and christmasse, meaning the festival (mass) of Christ. Christmas actually replaced a number of significant pagan midwinter festivals when the church was … Read more
Merriam Webster has published its 2007 word of the year, and the winner is w00t. Who would have thought that a word with numbers in it would make the cut? According to M-W, the word is an expression of joy (similar to yay). It’s also used by gamers to signify: ‘We owned the other team’. … Read more
Writing press releases is big business for freelance writers and it’s easy to learn the basic skills. Press releases inform people about the products and services that individuals and companies wish to promote. Their purpose is to make the news and they’re easy to write if you learn the basic techniques. The two key elements … Read more
Mind the gap! The famous London Underground announcement can help to remind us when to use breach. Although often confused with breech, breach has an entirely different meaning. It originates from old French and was used in a military sense to denote a gap in fortifications. These days it applies to any gap, break or … Read more
It was about time to get our wonderful readers involved with the blog. Instead of writing an article with one hand, therefore, let’s group our knowledge and see what comes out of it. The topic I want to cover is “Tips to Become a Better Writer.” All you need to do is to send one … Read more
Writing for the web is another great freelance writing market. It’s already huge and it’s growing every day. There’s so much web content out there that you need to make yours stand out. Here are four ways to make your web content appeal to readers. 1. Descriptive Titles The title of your article should tell … Read more
There are a lot of idiomatic expressions in English relating to skin and bones. Here are a few examples. Bone idle – lazy. (Example: He never does anything; he’s just bone idle.) Bone up – study. (Example: I need to bone up on history before the final exam.) By the skin of your teeth – … Read more
Persecute and prosecute are occasionally mixed up. Persecute means to torment or cause suffering, usually because of some perceived difference. School bullies persecute those whom they perceive to be weaker than they are. In the adult world, people may be persecuted because of their religious beliefs, political beliefs, ethnicity, sexual orientation or social grouping. Prosecution, … Read more
Sheridan’s 18th century play, The Rivals, featured a hilarious character called Mrs Malaprop, who was apt to drop a verbal clanger whenever she opened her mouth. That’s where we get the word malapropism from, though its real origin is in the French phrase mal à propos, meaning inopportune or not to the purpose. When someone … Read more
Some words just can’t be qualified, such as unique. Something either is or isn’t unique – that’s all there is to it. Here are a few more words of that type. Crucial Crucial derives from the Latin crux, meaning cross. The word originally meant cross shaped, but took on the meaning of deciding between opposing … Read more