Why would some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English words when perfectly good Spanish words for the same thing already exist? Plus, handy terms in a dictionary of the Sussex dialect from 150 years ago: Back then, a dezzick was “a...
Suppose you take off your sandals and then carry them while holding the straps in your hand. In that case, is it correct to call those straps handles? Phil in Omaha, Nebraska, has a longstanding dispute with a friend over that question. You might...
An Army veteran in Madison, Alabama, wonders about the use of the charrette (sometimes spelled with one R, charette) in the military to mean a gathering to workshop ideas and work through all potential solutions to a problem. The term seems to have...
The Pantone Color Institute announced its 2015 Color of the Year, and the winner is marsala. The reddish brown hue is named for a wine from the West Coast of Sicily, which in turn may go back to an Arabic term meaning “harbor of god.” This is part...
In architecture and design, an affordance is a part of something that serves a function, like the handle on a cup or the notch in a dictionary where you put your thumb. In language we have affordances, too, such as words that indicate a place for...
Here are a few good skeuomorphs, or outdated aesthetic elements: We still refer to the ticking of a clock, even though we’re surrounded by digital timekeeping devices, and the kids are working hard for those washboard abs when they don’t even know...