Category: Language Arts
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In my comment on Joe’s post below, I expressed some frustration in failing to locate any official international of national document describing methods of interrogation that actually amount to torture. I searched specifically for "waterboarding." Although the Wikipedia defines it as torture, Attorney General Mukasey evaded giving an answer during his confirmation hearings by claiming…
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With the advent of each new year we contend with "lists." Lists of resolutions, hopes, predictions, trends, the most important people/books/movies/technological innovations of the last year etc. The wordsmiths too go to work with lists of new words and expressions that enter our vocabulary. This year I found a list of nineteen words and phrases…
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An idiom by definition is idiosyncratic – it conveys a meaning that is not always obvious or predictable from its construction. No wonder then, people tend to mangle and modify old fashioned idioms containing quaint expressions and words of foreign or antique origin to suit their own understanding of the language. A bit of logic…
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Even if you don’t know it, you speak Indish if: you wear pajamas (pai = leg, jama = garment. origin: Persian, common to most Indian languages) you shampoo your hair (champi = press or knead the head or any part of the body; origin: Hindi) your wardrobe contains khaki clothing (khak = dust; origin: Persian…
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Pluto was recently unceremoniously bumped from the planetary line up. After being snubbed by astronomers, the erstwhile ninth planet has found glory elsewhere – in the world of wordsmiths. The American Dialect Society has voted "Plutoed" the word of the year for 2006. The meaning of course is: "to demote or devalue someone or something, as…
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