Caroline calls from Clinch Mountain, Tennessee, to ask about two puzzling uses of the word fell, and not as in the past tense of fall. In books by J.R.R. Tolkien, she’s seen fell used as an adjective meaning “dreadful” or “evil.” It’s the same fell...
A San Antonio, Texas, listener lives in a house built by his grandfather, who was from Finland. The house has a small window in an upper corner that supposedly was designed to ensure that evil spirits could escape from the house. He thinks...
Patience, Hope, and Charity are pretty ambitious things to name your children. But what about Hate-evil, Be-courteous, or Search-the-scriptures? Or Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith? Puritan parents sometimes gave their kids so as to encourage those...
other v.— «There was stuff like even before the point in the trailer where the crowd turned into zombies. They’re sort of being, in sort of post-modern parlance, they’re sort of “othered.” They’re hidden in shadows, you can...
evil twin n.— «So how does an evil twin attack work? Let’s say that I’m a hacker. I set up my computer to transmit a signal that turns my PC into an access point, or Wi-Fi hotspot. I’ll even give it a legitimate-sounding name, like T...
boomstick n.— «Does he own a shotgun to blast the undead? His “boomstick,” as he called it in Evil Dead 3?» —“Long live the King” by Charles Purcell Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Feb. 18...
