Another word of the year candidate is immappacy, which is formed by analogy with “innumeracy,” and means the inability to understand maps. This is part of a complete episode.
Cleave, dust, and screen are all words that can mean the opposite of themselves. You can cleave to a belief, meaning to “adhere closely,” but you can also separate things by cleaving them. Words that mean the opposite of themselves go by...
Ever notice when people start to answer to a question with the words, “Yeah, no–“? Linguists have been studying this seemingly contradictory phrase for years. It may look like oxymoron, but it’s not. This is part of a...
There’s the late CNN broadcaster William Headline, the preacher named James God, and the physician named Dr. Hurt. Names like these that match the person’s profession are called aptronyms or aptonyms. We talk about the man who coined the...
What do we call it when new inventions or ideas change the name of something old? It used to be that the word guitar was sufficient, but now we regularly distinguish between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. Same for television, a word that...
Have you ever done something you regretted, and instinctively reached for the “undo” function, despite being nowhere near a computer? Maybe a page in your book accidentally turns and you reach for the browser’s back button? A...