Blog Detail
Wordmall
http://verbmall.blogspot.com
Wordmall is a blog about language--word and phrase origins, grammar and punctuation, writing tips, the humorous side of language, etc.
- Added on: Jul 26th, 2006
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Author: Michael J. Sheehan
- Listed in: Reference Writing
- Tags: metal hubris frenzy writers' cramp dapper soft soap
Recent Posts
Paraphernalia
A listener brought up the word paraphernalia as an instance of a word easier to say than to spell. The second “r” is often the victim of elision, so misspelling becomes a distinct possibility. The word is interesting in its own right. In Roman l...
Winter Words
November is almost gone, so in my backyard, winter is about to make an appearance. Let’s look at some words that involve that season. Brumal means of or pertaining to winter. It’s a great little word, but it’s not frequently used. It is a ...
Pigging Out
I know that the focal point of traditional Thanksgiving dinners is the turkey, but I’m going to go off on a pig tangent in this posting. Many words that have nothing directly to do with pigs ended up using roots related to the pig. Sometimes this ...
Expert Ease
The adjective expert means experienced or skilled. It is heavily grounded in trying something for yourself, in hands-on learning, in personally putting something to the test. It comes from the Latin verb experiri, to try, to undergo thorough evaluati...
Filthy Lucre
We covered slang terms for money on a recent program (wtcmradio.com). Among the offerings called in was “filthy lucre.” Lucre came from a Latin word, lucrum, which meant profit. But already in Roman times, a negative connotation began to creep in...
Carry On
I was a bit surprised to see that the Oxford English Dictionary has doubts about the usual etymology for the word belligerent. My fading memory told me that it came from the Latin word for war (bellum) and from the Latin verb gerere, to wage or car...
