Citrus fruit includes, among others, grapefruit. It’s obviously called a “grapefruit” because of how much it resembles a grape, right? Or maybe not… The grapefruit is relatively recent, as fruits go. It evidently showed up in Barbados in the 1700s as a naturally-occurring cross between oranges and a lesser-known fruit today called a “pomelo.” The Continue reading

Many people are so eager to think that they know what the future holds that they’ll seize on almost anything that they believe — or at least hope — holds a promise of divination. Many other people are so eager to take advantage of that first group that they’ll seize on almost that they believe Continue reading

There are lots of people today who proudly (or at least happily) describe themselves as nerds, geeks, or both. It’s quite a turnaround, because both words used to have somewhat negative connotations. They’ve also tended to converge in meaning, so that it’s not really clear what the difference is, if any (and if you’re about Continue reading

Word of the day: Bohemian As early as the 1500s there were groups of people in England who spoke their own language and lived nomadically, preferring not to settle in existing towns or villages. They looked a bit different from most people too; clearly they had come from somewhere else.  Possibly because these people didn’t Continue reading

I found this information in an abditory. If this were written in Latin, that would be “abditorium,” which is the source of “abditory.” The word has been around since at least 1658, when it was used by somebody known only as J Robinson in a publication called “Endoxa:”  “In the center of the kernel of Continue reading

I have something fascinating to tell you. This isn’t it.  One thing to remember about English is that not all the words are in the dictionary. Unlike some languages (not many, but at least a few), English has no central authority. English grammar is not prescriptive; it’s descriptive — grammarians essentially just listen to and Continue reading

The phrase “it’s a doozy” is an American expression that means something is remarkable and usually excellent. If “His elder daughter arrives in a doozie of a snowstorm,” you know that snowstorm was particularly intense.  Popular culture contains a story about the word “doozy.” It’s said to be based on the Duesenberg automobiles of the 1920s. They Continue reading

A “screed” is a long speech, particularly a speech that tends to rant about this or that. It can also refer to something similar that’s written rather than spoken. Sometimes it’s used to refer to any writing, even a letter. But if you work in the building trades, there are several other “screeds” you’re probably Continue reading

If you were to unsuspectingly come across a bunch of nonsense words — say, for example, “’Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe” — you might just call it “balderdash” and continue on your way (possibly keeping a wary eye out for any looming jabberwockies). You’d be in the Continue reading

You may recall that “nitrogen”, “hydrogen”, and “oxygen” have something in common: the suffix “-gen” means “begetter of” in Greek, and these three elements were named after what they “produce.” Hydrogen produces water (hydro) when burned, oxygen reacts with metal to form acidic oxides that have a distinctly sour taste (“oxy-“ in Greek means sharp Continue reading