In English, to wait until the cows come home, means you’ll wait a long time. In French, it’s attendre la semaine des quatre jeudis, literally, to “wait for a week of Thursdays.” This is part of a complete episode.
Decisions by dictionary editors, wacky wordplay, and Walt Whitman’s soaring verse. How do lexicographers decide which historical figures deserve a mention or perhaps even an illustration in the dictionary? The answer changes with the times. •...
A writer at an ad agency in Rochester, New York, has a dispute with his chief copy writer: If you’re taking off Thursday and Friday, is your last day of work that week a Wednesday Friday? Or is it a Friday Wednesday? This is part of a complete...
“Next Thursday” could mean this coming Thursday or the Thursday after. And despite the push to make oxt weekend a term for the weekend after next, even grammarians haven’t settled on what next refers to, so it’s always...
The language of restaurant menus. Need a dictionary to get through a dinner menu? Research shows the longer the description of a particular dish, the more expensive it will be. Plus: What’s the best way to use a thesaurus? DON’T —...
rollup n.— «Patrick Neil, a division manager for Ventura County’s probation department, would not comment on why Avary was removed from the furlough program. “Any causes behind a rollup is not something we can discuss,” Neil...