A “logophile” (LAW-guh-file) - from the Latin for “speech” + “lover” - is a word buff.
Example (as used by Don Hauptman today): “As my logophile friend Charles Harrington Elster notes, the parsimonious official imposed severe luxury taxes and stringent austerity measures in an attempt to revive the French economy after the Seven Years’ War.”
[Ed. Note: [...]
Google’s a great place to start comparison shopping. You know the drill. Type in “cowboy boots,” and you’ll get about 4.3 million search results - including thousands of retailers that sell cowboy boots. It’s up to you to find the right boots at the right price.
But Google can help you narrow down those results… and [...]
About eight years ago, I started noticing that other people seemed to be having more fun than I was. And I realized that if I wanted more fun in my life, it was up to me to do something about it.
One thing I did to introduce more fun into my life was to take up [...]
Did you ever stop to think about the many words you encounter and use that are derived from the names of real people?
Linguists call such words eponyms (EP-uh-nims), from the Greek for “named after.” Eponym can also mean the person who inspired the word. The adjective is eponymous (eh-PON-uh-mus).
The list is long, but here are [...]
A scuba diver floats through a colorful undersea world, gingerly catching butterflyfish, blue angelfish, and the other tropical species swimming around him. He later sells them to large commercial aquariums and home collectors.
No, he’s not on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. And he’s not off some pristine Caribbean isle. He’s in the chilly waters off Long [...]
To “defenestrate” (dee-FEN-uh-strate) - from the Latin - is to throw out of a window.
Example (as used by Lane Smith and quoted in an issue of Time for Kids): “I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness [...]
Jobs are hard to come by these days. So when my friend “Carly” was offered an interview a few weeks ago, I was really pulling for her. She’s smart and seemed perfect for the position - but ended up not getting the job. I believe it was mainly due to a common interviewing mistake she [...]
“Senescence” (sih-NES-uns) - from the Latin for “to grow old” - is the process of aging.
Example (as used by Randy Kennedy in a New York Times review of Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by Tom Gjelton): “As the long senescence of Fidel Castro winds down, revolution seems to be back in the air, [...]
“What, exactly, does ‘gangbusters’ mean?” asked Michael Masterson. “And where did the expression ‘going like gangbusters’ come from?”
We were in a meeting, on page three of a new promotion we were reviewing.
“I’m not sure,” admitted the copywriter. “I’d never heard it until recently.”
Gangbusters. Another one of those words in the English language that we use [...]
You know those suitcases that just never show up at baggage claim? Chances are the airline “mishandled” them. It happens to about seven bags per 1,000. Most are reunited with their owners within 24 hours. But if the airline can’t find the owner after 90 days (if, for example, it doesn’t have an identification tag), [...]
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