Pylimitics

Beowulf, a long poem written sometime around 1000 CE (give or take a century or so), at one point mentions a monster named Nickera, who lives in a lake. In the poem it appears that “Nickera” is the monster’s name, but actually “nicker” (or nicor) was an Old English word for any sort of imaginary… Continue reading

Probably because I’m so fell, it fell to me in one fell swoop, as I worked a fell on my loom in my home in the fell, clothed in fells of sheep, to recount the odd history of “fell.”  “Fell” is a perfectly common, modern word. And it’s also rare. And it’s also obsolete and… Continue reading

One characteristic of English that makes word games possible is the typical patterns of letter combinations. For instance, there are combinations like “st” and “pr” that you run into all the time. On the other hand, you hardly ever see “kf” or “jp” in combination. When you find a word that includes a rare combination,… Continue reading

When you hear the phrase “tin pan alley,” if you think of anything at all, you probably think of the US music business. The term began to be used around the turn of the 20th Century, and at the time referred to a specific location: 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue. That was where… Continue reading

Sometimes you hear a performance called the performer’s “swan song.” It’s supposed to mean that it’s a last performance. The final speech of an ousted politician is sometimes called the same thing. But what do swans have to do with it, and why a song? Swans don’t sing — different kinds of swans make different… Continue reading