A researcher in Port Jefferson, New York, wonders if there’s a single word that means the opposite of prejudice. Unhate? He suggests the word allophilia, a combination of Greek words that mean love or like of the other. This is part of a...
If you’re not using a dictionary to look up puzzling words as you read them, you’re missing out on a whole other level of enjoyment. • When you’re cleaning house, why not clean like there’s literally no tomorrow? The term...
How do you pronounce the word potable, which means drinkable? A woman in the Navy stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, says most of her fellow sailors pronounce it with a short o, but she pronounces it with a long o. The word derives from Latin potare...
The words we choose can change attitudes — and change lives. A swing-dance instructor has switched to gender-neutral language when teaching couples. He says that using words like “leader” and “follower” actually works better...
The medical term tragomaschalia means “smelly armpit sweat,” and derives from Greek words that mean “goat armpit.” This is part of a complete episode.
A man who’s not so handy with computers described himself not as a technophobe, but as a technophyte — a misapprehension of the components of the term neophyte, a word stemming from Greek words meaning “newly planted.” This is part...