Jay in Barre, Vermont, asks: If someone is passionate about conservation, they’re called a conservationist, but if someone is passionate about conversation, they’re a conversationalist. Why the extra syllable in conversationalist? This...
spinster-man n.— «At 44, and still a “spinster-man” as he calls it, he meets a woman at a wedding, and she makes such an impression that he nonchalantly puts his arm in the punch bowl.» —“Music adds a bit of Irish to...