Pylimitics

During the 1600s in England, a great many negative words were coined by adding the prefix “mis-.” That is, if you acknowledged someone or something, but then discovered you’d made a mistake, in those days you’d say you “misacknowledged.” There was also “missadd” in 1657 for summing poorly, misalter in 1641 for making an error… Continue reading

In 1699 Abel Boyer published a dictionary with the unusual characteristic of a three-sentence title: The royal dictionary. In two parts. First, French and English. Secondly, English and French. In that dictionary you can find this entry: “Pill-garlick: a pitiful sneaking Fellow out of Countenance.” It wasn’t long before “pill-garlick” became the word “pilgarlic.” It… Continue reading

Nowadays being “enthusiastic” is generally considered a good thing. It means you’re intensely interested in something (like a hobby), you enjoy it very much (like a piece of music), or you highly approve of it (like your favorite sports team). This hasn’t always been the case, though. “Enthusiasm” came from the Greek word “enthousiasmos,” which… Continue reading

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” (Groucho Marx) “We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” (Benjamin Franklin) Those are examples of “antanaclasis,” which is repeating a word (or a phrase), and using it in a different sense the second time. The word comes from Latin,… Continue reading

Horatio Nelson, the famous British admiral, served in the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1700s, before the French Revolution. From 1799 to 1801 his flagship was the HMS Foudroyant. British warships are often named for admirable qualities, like the HMS Resolute or HMS Victory, and the Foudroyant was no different, even though few people would… Continue reading

When a craftsperson, artist, musician, or writer manages to fit a set of components together to make a congruous, harmonious whole, there used to be a word for it. Well, of course, there still are words for it — after all, I just used “congruous” and “harmonious.” And “consistency” and “elegance” could be added as… Continue reading