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Lewis Carroll is credited with memorable portmanteau words, including 鈥渟lithy鈥�: a combination of 鈥渟limy鈥� and 鈥渓ithe.鈥�
Words are not Platonic ideals with a separate existence. In language usage, fashion plays a crucial role.
The officiant at a wedding says, 鈥淚 hereby declare you married,鈥� and that utterance plays a crucial role in making it so.
The word "nerd" originated comparatively recently, in 1950, in Dr. Seuss鈥� 鈥淚f I Ran the Zoo.鈥� But the concept of nerdity has a long history.
"Insurrection" and "rebellion" imply wider participation 鈥� ordinary people, rather than members of the elite or a military unit, are the drivers.
WRITING EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS IS GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD AS YELLING, our language columnist notes.
People don't seem to know what 鈥� or when 鈥� to capitalize. It's a problem that streches back thousands of years.
Early European manuscripts don鈥檛 differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters; all letters are the same size and come in only one shape.
Some rules of English you know, some you don鈥檛, and 鈥� despite what you might have been taught in grammar school 鈥� some aren鈥檛 rules at all.
In the Middle Ages, "proper" spelling was not a cultural aspiration. People wrote words down as they pronounced them.
According to one tally, the word that prompts the most spelling-related Google searches, by a huge margin, is "restaurant."
Around 60% of words in spelling bees from 1996 to 2014 derived from Latin and French, about the same proportion as in English as a whole.
There are many 鈥� countless? 鈥� counts in the rest of Europe, but in Britain the husband of a countess is an earl. Scholars disagree about why.
There were no English dukes until 1337. Up until then, the English referred to the grandest aristocrats with the good old Germanic word "earl."
In her book, 鈥淟ike, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English," Valerie Fridland argues that many maligned verbal tics play useful roles.
When we 鈥渄o good,鈥� is it for ourselves or for others? Etymologically, it can be both, our language columnist writes.
In the U.S., May Day was thought to be too 鈥渃ommunist.鈥� So President Dwight Eisenhower declared May 1 as 鈥淟aw Day,鈥� to 鈥渃elebrate the rule of law.鈥�
The 18th century was 鈥渁 golden age for ketchup,鈥� with versions made from oysters, mushrooms, walnuts, mussels, and even fruit.
Until around 1500, the period from roughly September to November 鈥� fall 鈥� was named for what was going on with the crops, not trees. It was "harvest."
The Russian "rasputitsa" is famously daunting, having helped protect the nation from invaders for centuries.
