Pylimitics

If you ever happen to be talking to a self-appointed expert in grammar and usage (this clearly doesn’t include me, by the way), you might hear them talk about things like “gerunds” and “subjunctive tense;” stuff like that. If you feel like you’re getting out-jargoned, pull out a few of these handy terms; you’re sure… Continue reading

If you’re “nonplussed”, you’re either stuck, in a thinking sort of way, or you’re confused or perplexed by something. But does that suggest that if you figure something out, you ought to consider yourself “plussed?” Nope. “Nonplussed” is a word that came from a phrase, and when you disassemble the phrase it loses all of… Continue reading

“Internecine” is an unusual word, but not really all that obscure. It means “mutually destructive,” and it’s generally used in phrases like “internecine conflict” to describe something that affects to parties in conflict relatively equally. More recently it tends to be used specifically for contention between two groups who have something in common, such as… Continue reading

Over the centuries and millennia, people have believed a lot of things about the moon. Everything from what it’s made of (the “cheese” theory, while its credibility is currently low, might come roaring back at any moment) to the effects it has on what happens here on earth. For instance, back when people spoke Old… Continue reading

Word of the day: easy It’s always been easy in English to invent new euphemisms for “easy.” The practice goes way back, and finding even obsolete phrases is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Shakespeare, in “Troilus and Cressida,” (1609), referred to “bedwork,” which meant something so easy it could be done while… Continue reading

From 1687: “With what a rueful Phis and maine.” From 1714: “Fizle’s Phiz always gives me the Chollick.” From 1827: “And deem themselves of admirable fiz.”From 1903: “…the drollest phiz in dogdom.” From 1997: “…replaced with the phiz of his supposedly brain-dead nemesis.” What we have here is a word (“phiz”) that was in pretty… Continue reading