When in England ...

Jay Nordlinger writes, "Many years ago, I became aware that “pissed” meant one thing in America, another thing in Britain. One night in London, I asked a man for directions. He said, “Sir, I’m pissed.” He didn’t look angry, though. What he was, was drunk."

His readers chimed in.
My Irish relatives said: "Come on in and we'll have a wee nip and some good crack". Crack meaning conversation over

READ MORE - When in England ...

Obama is a rail-splitter, buffoon and boor

Nutmeg dealer.
No wait, he's a cross between sandhill crane and an Andalusian jackass.

A few days ago, Obama lamented that, “Lincoln -- they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me.”

John Miller looked it up and reports:
After securing the Republican nomination in 1860, he was branded the “Black Republican.” Southern newspapers obsessed over his physical appearance. He

READ MORE - Obama is a rail-splitter, buffoon and boor

A useful word for our times

So's your momma.
polemic / pê-lem-ik / noun
A heated controversy, especially an argument over doctrine or ideology.Polemic, linguist Robert Beard writes, comes with all the family a word needs. The adjective is polemical; the adverb, polemically. A person who engages in polemics is a polemicist [pê-lem-ê-sist] who polemicizes. A good polemicist is one who argues rationally. Polemicists engage

READ MORE - A useful word for our times

You can't take Archimedes anywhere

It's ok. It's science.
heuristic / hyur-is-tik / adjective, noun
1. Practical, hypothetical, based on an educated guess that serves as a practical guide in the investigation or solution of a larger problem.
2. Related to a "hands on" teaching method that leads students to an understanding of a subject by allowing them to conduct real research on that subject.Another way of saying it:
Heuristic

READ MORE - You can't take Archimedes anywhere

Read this before 10 a.m.

Or you'll be shot. That's your deadline.

The word means:
1. A line around a military prison beyond which a prisoner may not go without risk of being shot.
2. A time limitation by which some task must be completed.Deadline, linguist Robert Beard writes, is made up of dead and line and originally referred to the line around a prison beyond which a prisoner could expect to be shot. The finality

READ MORE - Read this before 10 a.m.

Granny executed in topless bar

The writer of the greatest headline in the history of tabloidkind has retired.
The genius who dreamed up the iconic New York Post headline “Headless Body in Topless Bar,” Vincent A. Musetto, was given an affectionate send-off by his colleagues last night after 40 years at the paper. Retiring film critic Musetto, who once ran the newsroom, was toasted by staff, who regaled him with a reading from

READ MORE - Granny executed in topless bar

Keep it simple, stupid

The Center for Plain Language, created to turn bureaucratese into English, has a list of simple words that can replace pompous ones. Here they are.


Excess wordsPlain Alternatives

accordinglyso
addresseesyou
as a means ofto
as prescribed byin, under
at a later datelater
at the present timenow, currently
commencebegin, start
constitutesforms, makes up
for the purpose ofto, for
heretoforeuntil,

READ MORE - Keep it simple, stupid

Finagle this

We can learn from this word something about how our language has evolved.
finagle / fi-nay-gêl / verb, intransitive
To obtain by devious means, to get something by scheming.Linguist Robert Beard expounds: We know that this is a real English word because it has none of the Latin elements associated with so many English words, elements like -ment, -ation, and -ious. We may call someone caught

READ MORE - Finagle this

Yup, there's a name for it

Work these into conversation today.

Petrichor -  the way it smells outside after rain.

Crepuscular rays - Rays of sunlight coming from a certain point in the sky. Also known as “God's rays.”

Muntin - the strip separating window panes.

Desire path - A path created by natural means, simply because it is the “shortest or most easily navigated” way.

Skeuomorph - “A design feature copied from a

READ MORE - Yup, there's a name for it

A word custom-made for politicians

Litmus test for congressmen.
git / noun
(British slang) A worthless or stupid person, an idiot, dumbbell, moron, half-wit, imbecile, lamebrain, lunkhead, simpleton, or fool.The linguist Robert Beard explains:
This word is basically a mild insult that could still hurt the feelings of someone present: "What kind of git would sit there and calmly eat his peas, one by one, with his steak knife?"

READ MORE - A word custom-made for politicians

It's the little things

tittle / tit-êl / noun
1. A small jot, such as the dot of an "i", the cross on a "t", the tiny beard (cedilla) on "ç", or the tilde atop Spanish "ñ", as in cañón "canyon".
2. Something minute, incredibly tiny, smaller even than an iota; indeed, the dot on an iota (Greek short "i") is a tittle.
Linguist Robert Beard, editor of excellent alphaDictionary, notes: this noun is unrelated to the verb (

READ MORE - It's the little things

Not one iota! Well, maybe a jot.

iota / ai-o-dê / noun1. The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, equivalent to a short [i].
2. A jot, a tittle, a wee bit, a very, very small amount.Linguist Robert Beard: The name of the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet has become our word for the smallest imaginable thing in general. It sounds a bit odd in English, so it has not developed a derivational family. A rather odd abstract noun,

READ MORE - Not one iota! Well, maybe a jot.

This blog is a farrago

Future blog posts.
farrago / fê-rah-go / noun
A disorganized assortment, hotchpotch, salmagundi, miscellany, clumsy mixture, gallimaufry, or jumble of odds and ends. "Dinner tonight will be a farrago of leftovers; I need to clean out the refrigerator."Back in the 16th century, the linguist Robert Beard notes, two adjectives emerged: farraginousand farraginary. In the US, an E is usually added

READ MORE - This blog is a farrago

Do you bite your nails?

Onychophagic
There's a word for that.

onychophagia / ah-nê-kê-fay-ji-ê / nounThe nervous habit of biting the nails.If you can pronounce it, you probably don't need to do it.
Linguist Robert Beard observes: A nail-biter is an onychophagic (the personal noun) and onychophagic does double duty as the adjective, as in "His onychophagic impulses are so strong, Hans Orf wears gloves and shoes

READ MORE - Do you bite your nails?

This is the best blog post ever! It's unbelievable!

hyperbole / hai-pêr-bê-lee / noun
A figure of speech that exaggerates for emphasis, metaphoric overstatement.Linguist Robert Beard: The use of hyperboles is hyperbolism, which you get when you hyperbolize a lot. The adjective ishyperbolic [hai-pêr-bah-lik]. Most clichés are hyperbolic, so if you find hyperbolism attractive, try to be original and avoid clichés like: "I'm so hungry I could eat a

READ MORE - This is the best blog post ever! It's unbelievable!

Summertime, and the living is aestival

Mary Cassatt, Summertime, oil on canvas.
aestivate / es-tê-vayt / verb, intransitive1. Spend the summer, to summer somewhere.
2. To spend the summer in a dormant state (antonym of hibernate). Bears hibernate through the winter to avoid the seasonal severity; desert amphibians aestivate in the summer for the same reason.Linguist Robert Beard: You may omit the initial A: estivate is as good as

READ MORE - Summertime, and the living is aestival

There's a word for it

Rainy Evening Walk. John Cox.
It's been raining here for as long as anyone can remember. Here's the word:

imbriferous / im-bri-fê-rês / adjective
Rainy, showery, rain-bearing, auguring rainThe linguist Dr. Robert Beard notes: Please allow the sheer beauty of this little lexical recluse to entice you into an occasional metaphor: "He found her warm voice and imbriferous eyes formed a safe haven

READ MORE - There's a word for it

Are you thick skinned?

Takes criticism well.
Then you are pachydermatous, pronounced pæ-kê-dêr-mê-tês.
1. Of, like or related to thick-skinned animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses.
2. Thick skinned, insensitive.It's the adjectival form of pachyderm, an elephant, and according to the linguist Robert Beard you can drop the "at" and just say pachyermous if you're in a hurry.

This word, he writes,

READ MORE - Are you thick skinned?

Why pizza is bizarre

Brave, bearded, angry pizza  eater.
For the answer, we turn to the tangled history of the word "bizarre," courtesy of Dr. Robert Beard, aka Dr. Goodword:
We have our choice of two etymologies for this word, neither of them satisfactory. French bizarre "odd, fantastic" began its life meaning "handsome, brave". French apparently borrowed the word with this sense from Spanish bizarro. Spanish

READ MORE - Why pizza is bizarre

A-whole-nother word

tmesis / tê-mee-sis / noun
Splitting a word in two and sandwiching an emphatic modifier between the two parts, as in abso-bloody-lutely or abso-doggone-lutely. Like the plural of all English words borrowed from Latin that end on -is, the plural of this word is tmeses.

Tmesis, Dr. Robert Beard writes, is the process of producing what linguists call a sandwich term: an expletive sandwiched between

READ MORE - A-whole-nother word