It’s the time of year many folks are confronting the near-term results of their “New Year’s Resolutions.” To actually follow through on them, of course, is another story; it needs sustained gumption. That’s the way it is today, at least. In the past following through on resolutions had very little to do with gumption. This Continue reading

Words often change meanings over time. This happens in different ways. The word “deer” for example, today means a specific type of animal. But back in Old English, when the same word was “doer,” it meant any kind of animal. “Enthusiasm” changed in the opposite way; it comes from Greek and originally meant something very Continue reading

The analysis of last week’s barmecidal meals is just a subcategory in a science that is — or at least should be — producing any number of treatises and research programs this time of year: aristology. In spite of the way it sounds, aristology doesn’t have anything to do with Aristotle. It’s the science (or Continue reading

A word has “vertical symmetry” when you can draw a vertical line in the middle and it’s the same on both sides — this is not quite the same as a palindrome, because it’s not just the same letters; it has to be visual symmetry. For that reason it matters whether the word is all Continue reading

If you’ve read Jane Austen’s Emma, you may have noticed an odd little detail. Just a single word, in fact. You have to have read the right edition to have seen this, because some modern editions have changed the word in the mistaken belief that Austen herself made a mistake. But she didn’t. The word Continue reading

In 1863, the Lady’s Newspaper of London printed a letter that’s gone down in the annals of insulting texts as a classic. It was from somebody called “J. Hooker,” and although it’s not really known who that might have been, there’s some speculation that it was Joseph Dalton Hooker, who was a well-known biologist of Continue reading

If you find yourself on a desert island without a boat, what you are is “stranded.” On the face of it, that seems like an unusual term to use for that situation; why not “trapped” or something? By the way, if your pirate crew got tired of always having to let you win at Scrabble Continue reading

Here’s a sentence you’d be unlikely to encounter nowadays. “It was noscible in the village that the oporopolist’s stall was often closed because of his fondness for riviation.” You’d be unlikely to encounter it because “noscible,” “oporopolist,” and “riviation” are all words that were once in general use in English, but haven’t been heard from Continue reading

To ”ferment” something means to institute a biochemical process where carbon dioxide and alcohol are synthesized. Fermentation is a step in the creation of wine, vodka, whiskey, and the like. On the other hand, to ”foment” has to do with people; you might ”foment a dispute” or even ”foment rebellion” — that latter phrase is Continue reading