Uncertain About Word-of-the-Year
Last month, the Oxford American Dictionary (Oxford American? How’s that for an oxymoron?) picked the word ‘unfriend’ as the Word-of-the-Year.
According to the dictionary, the verb unfriend means to “remove someone as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook”.
This is a most unfortunate word, coming out of the unlovely side of social media. […]
Size Matters
Last time, I wrote about two-letter words. I subsequently came across this interesting entry, published back in June 2007 at Amazing Posts, which focused on words considerably longer. In fact the spotlight was on the longest words in the English language.
The longest word ever to appear in the English dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters […]
Two for One
True Scrabble fans know enough legitimate two-letter words to really annoy the casual player. To even the odds ever so slightly, I will list a dozen or so twofers, with definitions.
Not surprisingly, many, like Ti, a woody plant native to the Pacific islands like Samoa and Tahiti, are not your English garden variety words but […]
Where There’s A Will: Bryson on Shakespeare
Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage is a short and, if you are interested in the topic, most interesting read. Part of the Eminent Lives series published by Atlas Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, it is one of a collection of biographies of historically important figures written by top writers. Drawing on Bryson for […]
