According to some people, if you travel to the midwestern US, point to a bell pepper, and ask a local resident what it is, they’re likely to tell you that it’s a “mango.” Then if you point to a mango, the same resident will call it… a “mango.” This odd situation, which is evidently true, Continue reading

In English we already know that the initial three items in a sequence: first, second, and “third, are identified in a different way than then next however-many (fourth, fifth, and so on). But what about the other end of a sequence? Other than last, next to last, second from last, and the rest, can English Continue reading

“Slang” is nonstandard language. In some circles slang is considered worse than just nonstandard; the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “A species of cannon; a serpentine or culverin.” Oops, no, that’s what “slang” meant in the 1500s. I should have used this: “A long narrow strip of land.” Oh, drat; not that one either. Continue reading

If you found yourself composing, say, a morning’s Harkening of the Day back in the late 1600s, you might want to mention Robin Hood. After all, the legend was alive in those days too, and (hard as it is to believe) it was a popular story even before the man himself was played by a Continue reading

“Alphonse had, over the years, amassed a lovely collection of samples of jade and oriental jade carvings, but by the time he came across the carved dragon, he was so jaded he hardly glanced at it twice.”  There are not two, but three different “jades” in that sentence! The first thing to know about jade Continue reading

When there’s a term that could be interpreted as troubling or offensive, we often employ a “euphemism” in its place. When you don’t want to come right out and say “Bonzo is the stupidest person I’ve ever met”, you can use a euphemism like “Bonzo is not the sharpest tool in the shed.” Euphemisms are Continue reading

I think everybody (at least in the US) has heard of “John Doe”, the fictional name used in legal cases as a substitute for a real name that’s being kept secret. But “John Doe” is a lot older than you might think. In English law it goes back to at least the 1500s. A rulebook Continue reading

Inexplicably, some quite handy words that can be used to point out someone’s lack of intellectual capacity have become quite obscure. This is in spite of current events, which certainly seem to be particularly characterized by individuals with such shortcomings. One word that’s quite rare but pretty expressive is “jobbernowl.”  “Jobbernowl” simply means a stupid Continue reading

The phrase “adding insult to injury” seems, on the face of it, to be a bit silly. Is it supposed to mean that after you do somebody harm, calling them names makes it worse?  That’s not what it was intended to mean though — it comes from a time when “insult” didn’t have quite the Continue reading