What do we mean by the expression for a spell, meaning “for a period of time”? It’s mere coincidence that this term is written the same way as the word spell meaning to “arrange letters to form words” or spell as in “a magical incantation.” The spell meaning “a period of time” comes from Old English spala, which means “substitute.” In the 16th century, this kind of spell meant “to take the place of someone doing a task” or “take a turn at doing work.” By the 18th century, the word’s meaning had expanded to include the more general idea of “a period of time.” This is part of a complete episode.
Unparalleled misalignments are pairs of phrases in which the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the phrases themselves mean different things. For example, the phrase blanket statement can be paired with cover story...
Jameela in Charlotte, North Carolina, says her family refers to their television’s remote control as the clicker, but her friends insist on calling it the remote. These devices go by other names as well, including doofer, flicker, zapper, and...
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