The Many Uses of “Set”
The OED has nine entries for the ubiquitous word set: an acronym, two nouns, two adjectives, two verbs, an obsolete […]
May or Might—Does It Matter Which?
The verb may is one of the oldest in English. Through the centuries, it has been used with a variety […]
What Does “Mien” Mean?
Until recently, I thought everyone agreed on the meaning of mien. Dictionaries do. Someone’s mien is their general appearance and […]
“Bully,” a Word with a Split Personality
Bully is one of many English words that have undergone semantic degeneration or pejoration. Beginning as a pleasant word, bully […]
Supremist, Supremacist, and Agent Nouns
Reader venqax poses a question about the use of the four-syllable agent noun supremacist in preference to three-syllable supremist. On […]
Amelioration: A Nice Semantic Shift
Semantics is the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning in language. Students of semantics trace the ways that words and […]
Is “Myself” a Polite Way To Say “Me”?
A reader commenting on “TV’s War on Me and I” asks, Is it your opinion that when a speaker refers […]
Should “Next Day” Be Preceded by “the”?
A reader poses a question about a usage that occurs in one of my posts from 2009. Calvin Coolidge was […]
Apposition and Anarthrous Premodifiers
A reader wonders if this sentence containing nouns in apposition has enough commas: As a club, we must extend our […]
The Name Is not the Person
Words as labels The first principle of semantics is that the word is not the thing. Words are labels for […]
Inception and Conception
A reader has asked for a post on the words inception and conception, speculating, “Might they be synonymous?” Conception comes […]
Words of the Year
Since the 1990s–beginning with the American Dialect Society—various entities, including dictionaries and individual lexicographers, have announced Words of the Year […]