A taciturn gumshoe in Robert B. Parker’s detective novel Bye Bye Baby (Bookshop|Amazon) offers this good advice: “Never say anything that doesn’t improve the silence.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Words Like Violence Break the...
Is there a difference between reticent and reluctant? Reticent more specifically involves reluctance to speak–it comes from the Latin root meaning “silent,” and is a relative of the word tacit–whereas you can be reluctant to do anything. This is...

