Pylimitics

Words take on new meanings all the time. One of them is terrific. No, I mean one of them is “terrific.” It comes from the Latin word “terrificus,” which means frightening. But of course nowadays if you say something is terrific, you mean it’s marvelous and not frightening at all. Something like, I don’t know,… Continue reading

These days the language we use is full of acronyms. Probably too full; people are so used to acronyms that they sometimes assume that a word that’s not an acronym must be one, so they invent it. When they do that, they’re creating a “backronym.” For example, there’s a test applied to newborn babies to… Continue reading

We’ve had to wait a long time for “wait” to be used the way it is today. You can “wait” for something, meaning to bide your time until an event, you can “wait” on something, such as a table at a restaurant, and you can simply “wait tables.”  “Wait” originated as an old Germanic word… Continue reading

It’s the time of year many folks are confronting the near-term results of their “New Year’s Resolutions.” To actually follow through on them, of course, is another story; it needs sustained gumption. That’s the way it is today, at least. In the past following through on resolutions had very little to do with gumption. This… Continue reading