Is the term “Oriental” offensive? Where do we get the phrase “not one iota”? Why do we tell someone to “take a gander”? And who coined the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
“Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices” is a new exhibit at the British Library in London featuring the earliest printed versions of Beowulf, the Wycliffe and King James Bible, and the oldest known example of written English. This...
Hi! "It was bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen." In this week's episode of "A Way with Words," we share favorite first lines. Also, beanplating, meeting cute, looking like "a tree full of...
Shangkong n.— «Once the global recovery begins, however, New York and London might be vying less with one another than with a new competitor in the form of a partnership between Hong Kong and Shanghai—call it “Shangkong”—a highly...
Beep-boop-beep! It's another newsletter from "A Way with Words." This weekend we had a row over the death of the subjunctive, listened with curiosity to a Texan talking about "help your plate," fell in love with...
Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words. We've got cheese! It was our second week in a row talking about the books of David Crystal. (He deserves it!) This time, we plunged into the rich pages of his book "As They Say in...