Pylimitics

It’s a somewhat puzzling state of affairs. There are quite a few characters and symbols we routinely use in addition to the regular alphabet; things like “@“, “#”, and even the common “*”. These commonly used symbols don’t have consistent names. But there are also many other characters and symbols that are only in use… Continue reading

It’s not in very common use nowadays, but at one time it was pretty common to see or hear phrases like “he’ll be at the race track on Thursday, as is his wont.” That doesn’t mean he “wants” to visit the race track. Even though obviously he does want to, “wont” and “want” are completely… Continue reading

“He was positive, facile, amiable,” wrote Josiah Gilbert Holland in The Story of Sevenoaks in 1876. The question is, what did he mean? “Facile” is a word that’s had quite a number of subtly different meanings over the years. For instance, in 1576 it meant lenient or mild: “he shewed hym selfe gentle and facyle.” Generally a good… Continue reading

As you might know, the earth is not really spherical. Not that it’s flat, of course — but its shape is slightly distorted by the fact that it spins, so it’s an “oblate spheroid” — that is, it’s slightly flattened at the poles. Now, if you read anything about European history in the late Middle… Continue reading

If you’re pressed for time before, say, a presentation or a task, sometimes you just wing it — you improvise, proceed in haste without preparation. That is, you autoschediaze. “Autoschediaze” — which is pronounced with FIVE syllables: aw-toe-ske-di-ez — is the verb form of “autoschediastic.” That word showed up in English from either Greek or… Continue reading