If you’re serious about writing a memoir, what topics should you include, and what can you leave out? And how honest can you really be about the other people in your life? Some of America’s leading memoirists wrote things they lived to...
Does sanction mean “a penalty” or “an approval”? Well, both. Martha explains the nature of contranyms, also known as Janus words. Here’s an article about them in the periodical Verbatim. This is part of a complete...
The internet abounds with memes. Grant explains that this word was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. More about them at Know Your Meme. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Memes” Hi, you have A...
Eric in Plano, Texas, asks about skosh, his father’s word for a small amount, as in just a skosh more tea. The word comes from Japanese sukoshi, meaning small or little. English speakers often heard the first vowel as nearly silent and shortened...