Pylimitics

Curses, foiled again! Aluminum is a metal we encounter many times per day, which might raise an interesting question: why is it called “aluminium” in England and “aluminum” in the US? It’s not just a matter of an idiosyncratic pronunciation of “aluminum.” In England and the US the spelling shifts to match the pronunciation. It… Continue reading

Most people are generally aware of volts, a measure of electricity named after Alessandro Volta. Another electrical measure is the ohm. That was named after Georg Ohm. And amps, or amperes, are named after André-Marie Ampere. Perhaps you see a pattern here. Measures and standards established in the past two or three centuries are often… Continue reading

There’s something about the color blue that’s a little different from other colors. I’m not sure what it is, but for some reason you can find more weird references to “blue” than any other color. Here are just a few of them. “Blue murder” is an expression from the 1800s that means a cry of… Continue reading

A “hypocorism” is a pet name or familiar name. “Jimmy” for “James” or “Betty” for “Elizabeth.” “Hypocorism” probably needs a pet name of its own. It’s one of the rarest words in English (and that’s saying something). It was included in the 1899 edition of the OED, and classified as “rare” even then. The OED,… Continue reading

Some writers have contributed enormously to English. Shakespeare, of course, is the one everybody thinks of. John Milton added even more words than Shakespeare. And don’t forget about Charles Dickens! Dickens usually wrote about working-class people in 1800s England. His characters were often poorly educated and communicated in slang, and some of what Dickens contributed… Continue reading