Pylimitics

Most people know that an “acronym” is a word created from the first letters of a group of different words, like “NASA” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The “-nym” part of “acronym” is from the Greek word “onoma,” which means name. The “acro-“ part is also from Greek: “akros” means the top of something.  You… Continue reading

Keeping your nose to the grindstone means continuing to work; paying attention. It actually comes from old grist mills, which had big turning stones for grinding grain into flour. The stones, which were several feet across and weighed tons, had to be adjusted precisely so they ground the grain, but didn’t grind against each other.… Continue reading

Keeping your nose to the grindstone means continuing to work; paying attention. It actually comes from old grist mills, which had big turning stones for grinding grain into flour. The stones, which were several feet across and weighed tons, had to be adjusted precisely so they ground the grain, but didn’t grind against each other.… Continue reading

Like “-mancy” or “-logy”, another English suffix that indicates something important about a set of words is “-aster”. That suffix is from Latin, and indicates “lower status” or “incompleteness”. In Latin it was used pejoratively. The English words that end in “-aster” have passed out of everyday usage, but a century or more ago they… Continue reading

If you happened to read the Daily Telegraph, back in June 1999, you might have run across this: “The Balkans conflict is at a watershed between a diplomatic settlement and the prospect of a ground war.” If you’re an English speaker from North America, you probably would have wondered, at least for a moment, what… Continue reading