Pylimitics

In American English “scrumptious” means something delicious. It comes from regional dialects in England in the early 1800s, and originally it meant something quite different. Edward Moor’s  1823 “Suffolk Words and Phrases” includes this definition: “shrewing, stingy, in an avaricious sense.”  When “scrumptious” crossed the Atlantic, it took on a new meaning, but still nothing… Continue reading

Most everybody is familiar with “hemming and hawing”, which means hesitating, dissembling, foot-shuffling indecision. If there’s something unpleasant that needs to be done, or a big mistake to be explained, you might encounter some hemming and hawing first.  People have been hemming and hawing for a long time. Gervase Babington referred to it in 1588… Continue reading

One handy way to coin a new word in English — if the new word is meant to be a negative version of another word that already exists — is to add “dis-“ as a prefix. That’s how English got words like “dishonest,” “disconnect,” and “discontent.” But this is a relatively new practice in the… Continue reading

Thomas Watson, in 1847, published a book with at least one important lesson. The book was titled “Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic” — note that it doesn’t say “physics;” in 1847 “physic” meant what we’d call the practice of medicine. Watson’s lesson was quite simple: “Shut a healthy pig up in a… Continue reading