post-traumatic embitterment disorder n.— «People who feel they have been wronged by someone and are so bitter they can barely function other than to ruminate about their circumstances. This behavior is so common—and so deeply destructive—that some...
Memorial Day good wishes to you and the remembered. Here's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." Did you miss us? There was no newsletter last week, so now we have two brand-spanking-new episodes to share. This past weekend we...
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers’ rights, the Amazon Kindle 2, Roy’s recent book, Alphabet Juice, “sonicky” words, and noodling for catfish. He also clears up the mystery of whether...
performalism n.— «Grobman and Neuman call the new trend in architecture “performalism,” a term that is derived from the words “performance” (the way in which a building and urban planning in general function, and the degree to which they meet our...
knobology n.— «Students take readily to the computerized training. Byron Hull, who manages training for the Air Route Traffic Control Centers, refers to the computer savvy of the new recruits as “knobology,” a neologism that describes the students’...
A California caller is puzzled as to why the prefix un- seems to function in two entirely different ways in the terms undone and unmarried. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Conflicting Meanings of Prefix “Un”” Hello, you have A Way...
