Lorelei from Wakefield, Virginia, learned the word nonce from the Spelling Bee game in The New York Times. When she looked up the definition of nonce, she saw it described as an adjective that is coined for or used for one occasion. She found this amusing, since the only time she ever sees it is in the spelling bee game. Nonce derives from Middle English words then anes, meaning “the once.” The word frabjous in Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” is an example of a nonce word. Nonce words coined for just one occasion sometimes take on a life of their own. Words that embody what they denote are described as autological. The word polysyllabic is autological because it contains several syllables, as pentasyllabic, which contains five syllables. Other examples of autological words: the noun noun, and the adjectives sibilant and wee. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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