Jingoism is not archaic yet, just a sharper-than-usual word for aggressive, chest-thumping nationalism. Katie in East Thetford, Vermont, had used jingoistic for a political candidate and wondered if it was merely a family word. Its history runs...
If someone’s jingoistic, they’re extremely patriotic, often belligerently so. The term comes from a British song written in 1870 that uses the phrase by jingo! to conjure up enthusiasm for a British naval action. This is part of a...
If your friend says she’s coming to town Sunday week, exactly when should you expect to see her? What do you call those typographical symbols cartoonists use in place of profanity? Plus grass widows, the linguistic phenomenon called creaky...