Why do we speak of the red, white, and blue when discussing the American flag? Why not blue, white, and red or white, red, and blue? A couple of reasons: The color order lodged in the language thanks in part to the patriotic song from the 1840s...
The phrase fight the good fight, which means to “try one’s best” and “attempt to do what’s right,” is inspired by the second of the epistles to Timothy attributed to the apostle Paul: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have...
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog is an example of the rhetorical device called antimetabole, from Greek words that mean “a turning about.” Other examples include When the going...
Stevie Wonder’s 1976 hit “As” includes a long list of adynatons, those fanciful statements about impossible events that are used for rhetorical effect. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Adynatons from Stevie...
When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call a gypsy. But there’s a growing recognition that many people find the term gypsy...
A simile is a rhetorical device that describes by comparing two different things or ideas using the word like or as. But what makes a good simile? The 1910 book Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, by Yale public-speaking instructor Grenville Kleiser...