Pylimitics

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

“Baseball” has a long history in the US, and like most things with a long history, there are plenty of myths, legends, and commonly held beliefs. For instance, you can find references to baseball being invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday. You can also learn that baseball was invented in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright. With… Continue reading

Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist in the 1700s who invented the modern system of classifying and naming organisms. It’s thanks to him that we can not only call a hedgehog a hedgehog, but also identify it as a mammal in the family “erinaceinae.” And likewise with virtually every plant and animal on earth. Linnaeus… Continue reading

François Rabelias was a Renaissance man in fifteenth-century France. That is, not only did he actually live during the French Renaissance, but he also pursued the multiple careers expected of somebody we would today label a “Renaissance man.” He was a writer, a doctor, a monk, and, although they didn’t really have the label at… Continue reading