Pylimitics

It used to be the case that you’d “convince” someone that, for example, apples tasted better than oranges, but you’d “persuade” them to, for example, bring you an apple. That is, “convince” and “persuade” used to have different meanings; you would “convince” someone “of” something, or “that” something was true, and you’d “persuade” someone “to” Continue reading

Pardon me if this is tedious, but one of the interesting, or possibly maddening, things about the study of rhetoric is its inherent contradictions. Not so much that the rules of rhetoric disagree with one another, but for a field that’s all about improving your communication, it tends to be couched in obscure, hard-to-remember terminology Continue reading

Avast, me hearties! Every trade, craft, and endeavor that’s complex enough to warrant specialized skills and tools also generates its own jargon, as practitioners invent ways to communicate with one another about things that wouldn’t necessarily mean anything to anyone else. You could make an excellent case that for centuries, the most complex human activity Continue reading

Everybody has seen maps that use contour lines to show, for example, areas of barometric pressure, temperature, or elevation. That type of illustration is called an “isogram,” from the Greek words “isos” (equal) and “gram” (something written). By the way, the “gram” that’s a weight is from the Latin word “gramma” (a small weight).  There’s Continue reading