Pylimitics

“Pale” isn’t an exact synonym for “white”, as in “white picket fence”, but it’s pretty close. And as everybody who’s grown up in or even visited suburban areas in the US, a “picket fence” is a pretty standard thing to have around the front yards there, and nearly all of them are painted white. But… Continue reading

Imagine you want to build a clock, but annoyingly enough, you find yourself stuck several centuries in the past, and you don’t really know how to start. The first thing you need is something that “ticks” in a reliably steady cadence. Enter the pendulum. Pendulums swing back and forth pretty steadily. Pendulums started being used… Continue reading

It’s high time to review some words in the “obsolete” pile to see if we should bring them back and start using them again.   Here’s a word we should resurrect: teterrimous. Back in the 1700s and 1800s when it was in use it meant “most foul”, as in “beware the teterrimous monster living in… Continue reading

“Again” is a word that comes up…well, again and again in conversation. It’s been around for a very long time; at least since Old English. But its meaning contains a surprising little twist.  What you probably think of when you use “again” is repetition; you did something once, and if you do the same thing… Continue reading

Word of the day: refrain When an over-played, clichéd song is played yet again, particularly when it cycles around to the tired refrain, unless you’re with a particularly refrained group of people, someone is sure to utter the refrain “how many times do we have to listen to this tune?”  “Refrain” is not exactly a… Continue reading