Following up on our conversation about anadromes, those words that form another word when spelled in reverse, two more examples: Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, who is named for his father Ramon, and a woman called Eldeen, a name...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle involves nominative determinism, the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate toward occupations that fit their names. For example, which handsome movie actor, who was twice voted People magazine’s...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski would like you to meet Greek friends’ friends, all of whose names follow the pronunciation pattern of their pals. For example, Sophocles would like you to meet his friend who’s an expert on cephalopods, such as squid...
What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...
Some proper names could also function as verbs. For starters, there’s Grant, Bob, Josh, Mark, Chip, and Sue. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “First Names That Also Work As Verbs” Grant, you and I have a lot in...
Sean in Asheville, North Carolina, wonders how to pronounce the nearby town of Leicester. Say it the way the locals do. It’s part of a family of British place names affected by vowel reduction and haplology, the omission of a sound or syllable...