Pylimitics

English adopts new words regularly, and it also adopts new meanings for existing words. Sometimes these new meanings are metaphorical applications of the original definitions, and sometimes…well, not. Have a look: If you’re “on tenterhooks” (it’s not “tenderhooks”), you’re anxiously waiting for something. But a “tenterhook” was an actual hook — they were spaced along… Continue reading

Pick up a copy of the 2002 “New York Times Everyday Reader’s Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused, and Mispronounced Words” and you’ll find that the author described it thusly: “This is not a succedaneum for satisfying the nympholepsy of nullifidians.”  A “succedaneum” can be a substitute for “substitute.” It’s derived from the Latin “succedaneus,” which is… Continue reading

In quite a few movies about 20th century US mobsters, the term “vigorish” pops up. It’s the interest you have to pay weekly if you owe money to a loan shark or mobster. It’s never all that clear what the interest rate might be, but it’s always absurdly high. If you borrow $1000 — which… Continue reading

The word “hiatus”, which is borrowed directly from Latin, originally meant a gap or opening. That is, a physical gap, like a hole or even a chasm or canyon. That’s how Richard Burthogge used it in 1675: “He saw two Openings or Hiatus in the Earth.” Even Ben Franklin used it, in the December 15th edition of… Continue reading

When you “migrate,” you’re moving from one place to another. If you do that, you might be called a “migrant.” On the other hand, geese migrate annually, but I’ve never heard of “migrant geese.” If you migrate in order to go where a particular kind of job is to be found, you might be called… Continue reading