Pylimitics

A “beadle” used to be a minor official, particularly in England. The word has been around for centuries, although by now it’s mostly obsolete. In all that time it’s been used in various ways, from a “herald” — sort of a town crier who shouted out the latest news or proclamations — to a person… Continue reading

Here’s an English-language oddity; you can utter words, and the words you utter can be utter nonsense! That’s right, “utter” and “utter” are utterly different words.  Well, maybe not utterly different. They are different words, but they come from the same source: the Old English word “uttera,” which was the adjective form of “ut” (by… Continue reading

A few centuries ago you probably would have worn weeds. Not that people were wandering around wrapped in thistle leaves — “weed” used to mean a garment, like this reference from the 1400s: “I am wrappyd in a wurthy weed.” It’s a very old word that came from the predecessors to Old English: Old Frisian, Old… Continue reading

“Hypercorrection” is the tendency to take a grammatical rule (sometimes a real rule, sometimes imaginary) and extend it via a mistaken analogy. I’m sure you’ve encountered this. It’s behind the idea of changing “doubtless” (a perfectly good word) to “doubtlessly” (not a word), and when you have a word like “ignoramus,” pluralizing it as “ignorami”… Continue reading

The year is edging toward summer, the season for blockbuster movie releases. One of the seasons, at least; another raft of the things shows up around Christmastime. Take a look at the Hollywood movies of years ago, though, and you’ll notice that the business has changed drastically. In the 1920s and 1930s, studios cranked out… Continue reading