Pylimitics

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who lived in England in the late 1700s and early 1800s, is mostly remembered for his writing – long poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. He was eccentric, even for a member of the 18th century British intelligentsia. Among other things, he came up with his own… Continue reading

Throughout the entire history of humanity, it’s been possible in many places around the world to locate water by simply digging a deep enough hole. Getting the water up out of that hole, though, there’s the problem. But it was a problem that began to be solved at least 4,000 years ago when the “shadoof”… Continue reading

At present we shall present, as a present, the puzzling past and present of “present.”  The origin of the word “present” is not presently known for sure. It might have come from French, or it might have been formed all on its own in English. There was an Old French word “present,” but there was… Continue reading

It’s perfectly acceptable today to use contractions. In fact, throughout the history of English it’s usually been fine. But there was a time… Contractions go back at least as far as Old English, which included “nis” (ne is, meaning “is not”), naes (ne waes, meaning “was not”), nat (ne wat, meaning “does not know”), and… Continue reading

If you attend a classical music concert performed on “period instruments,” which are the types that were in use when the music was composed, you might see and hear a “clavichord.” It resembles a piano, which is a more recent version of the same thing; an instrument in which strings are played via keys. The… Continue reading