Popular souvenirs of major cities, like New York or Paris, are handheld versions of famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty (both, by the way, the products of Gustave Eiffel). But are these things “models” or “replicas?”   “Replica” is a word borrowed from Italian sometime in the 1500s, and its… Continue reading

The medical community sometimes tries to suggest that “addiction” should be limited to its clinical sense — that is, it’s not helpful to a discussion of physical addiction to, say, opiates, if it’s also common to say things like “I love chocolate; I’m really addicted,” or “I’m addicted to that new coffee shop.” As almost… Continue reading

Here’s a pair of words that have diverged in meaning: “awful” and “awesome.” When you say something is “awful,” you mean it’s bad. I’m not going out today; the weather is awful. But “awesome” is good. Let’s go out and enjoy the awesome weather. Of the two words, “awful” is the older one, dating back… Continue reading

An interesting way to look at dictionary definitions is to look at the definition by itself and see whether you can figure out the word it’s attempting to define. For example, if you see “any one of the berries, growing in clusters on a vine, and from the juice of which wine is made,” you… Continue reading

Back in, say, 1600 or so, if you were going to combine two things, you were probably very pleased to be able to choose between two relatively new words: “conflate” and “commingle.” “Conflate”, at least in the 1600s, meant “put together,” and “commingle” meant (and still means) “mix together.” Pretty close to the same thing,… Continue reading

If you find yourself musing about something, are you in thrall of the Muses of ancient Greece? Is that where music comes from, which we can use for amusement and which, in some forms, we might find bemusing? Well…no. It’s more complicated than that. Although some of the words above are related, others aren’t. The… Continue reading

After living in one place for an extended time, even if they don’t technically qualify as “hoarders,” many people find themselves surrounded by bric-a-brac. Tchotchkies. Knick-knacks. Odds and ends. Ornaments. Items, in other words, that were very likely purchased in those inexplicable establishments that seem to exist simply to purvey purposeless paraphernalia: gift shops (or,… Continue reading

“Gotham” has been a nickname for New York City since 1807, when Washington Irving used it in a magazine called Salmagundi. The magazine ran for 20 issues, and besides writing for it, Irving was also the publisher. The whole point of the publication was to satirize the city and everyone in it.  The reason Irving… Continue reading

For many centuries English speakers who were afraid of getting dirty got along pretty well by saying something like “I’m afraid of getting dirty.” Similarly, if they were afraid of spirits, they’d tell their friends “I’m afraid of spirits.” There are plenty of other examples. They didn’t need any special words for their fears. Anna… Continue reading