Pylimitics

A “lodge” is a number of things, from a shelter to a hut to a seasonal house to an inn. If it’s an inn, that implies an innkeeper. But unless the quality of service in past centuries was particularly abysmal, why, when we have complaints, is it customary to “lodge” them? “Lodge” appeared in English… Continue reading

For an old North American colloquial word that started showing up in the 1800s, “foofaraw” has a surprisingly robust entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. “Foofaraw” originated in the western US, and at first meant fussy, vain, or gaudy. It was carried back to England and appeared in “Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine” in 1848: “Them white… Continue reading

You can delete, you can erase, you can remove, but to really, really get rid of something, you “expunge” it. “Expunge” connotes complete and total obliteration. But oddly enough, it began as possibly the mildest version of erasure there was.  “Expunge” comes from the Latin “expungere,” which had a very specific meaning. When a Roman… Continue reading

Some English words exist only as what sound like negative forms, like “incognito.” You never hear about anyone going around “cognito,” after all. But there are also some that were originally positive words, then gained a negative form, then the positive form faded out of use leaving us with only…for example…”ineffable.”  Something that’s “ineffable” can’t… Continue reading

Even though a fairly large proportion of English is derived from French (thanks mostly to the Norman invasion over a thousand years ago), one pretty reliable way to boost the snob-value of something in English is to give it a name that, if it isn’t legitimately French, at least sounds French. If you know someone… Continue reading