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Month: February 2016

  • One Word: The Preposition You End Your Sentence With

    There’s this idea that it’s wrong to end a sentence with a preposition. It won’t die. But it’s mistaken – the idea, I mean, not the preposition. A preposition is a perfectly good thing to end a sentence with. The notion that one can’t do this is often put forward as a “rule” of English…

  • Can Two Positive Words Ever Be Negative?

    Can Two Positive Words Ever Be Negative?

    How can two positive words produce a negative meaning? Or perhaps more accurately: Is this even possible? Alert reader Mahih Pouryaghma asks about this, prompted by my recent article on “I could/couldn’t care less.” People used to say (and some still say) “I couldn’t care less” to mean “I have no interest in this matter.”…

  • Vintage Words Back in Vogue

    Vintage Words Back in Vogue

    Vintage words are making a comeback. (Thanks to Richard Green for spotting an eye-opening article about this.) Words like “peruse”, “smitten”, “bespoke”, and “dapper” are rising sharply in popularity since year 2000 – the turn of the 21st century. The same is true of words like “thee”, “thou”, “fortnight”, “bedchamber”, “amongst”, and others that are…

  • One Word: Could/Couldn’t

    One Word: Could/Couldn’t

    I couldn’t care less about the word “could”. Also, I could care less about “couldn’t”. Except when we use “could” and “couldn’t” – words that profess to be exact opposites – to mean exactly the same thing. How is that even possible? Spoiler alert: It’s possible! I didn’t think so, but I was wrong. Read…

  • Irfanview: A Top-Tier Photo Editor

    Irfanview: A Top-Tier Photo Editor

    Irfanview is a small, lightning-fast, super-powered photo editor for Microsoft Windows. If you ever touch digital images, you need it. I promised recently to write about my favorite writing tools. Irfanview is one of them. This may seem strange. How is an image editor a “writing tool”? Writers need images and illustrations. Maybe not all…

  • One Word: Your Relationship to the Parents of Your Child’s Spouse

    One Word: Your Relationship to the Parents of Your Child’s Spouse

    There is no such word! In English, that is. In some other languages, yes. But not English. This word fascinates me despite the fact that it doesn’t exist. Or, perhaps more aptly, because it doesn’t exist. Either way, it speaks volumes about our English-speaking society, the relationships we value – and those we do not.…

  • My Fascination With Fasteners

    My Fascination With Fasteners

    My love affair with fasteners – glue, tape, staples, you name it – goes back longer than I can remember. Of my many obsessions, this is one of the few with obvious practical uses. This fastener affinity probably isn’t specific enough to call a hobby. Not exactly. Hobbies are systematic. This is more a theme…

  • One Word: Pert Near

    One Word: Pert Near

    A recent article of mine uses the compound word “pert near”. What’s the deal there? It was my article on whistling (I can’t whistle) in which I asked whether there’s “anything you can’t do … even though pert near everyone else you know can”. Of course, “pert near” is a slang expression meaning “pretty nearly”…

  • Why I Never Learned to Whistle

    Why I Never Learned to Whistle

    It’s true: I can’t whistle! Never learned, despite years of trying. This article’s title is misleading — or perhaps its more accurate to say it simply reflects wishful thinking. I’d love to know why I can’t whistle. But since I don’t know, I can’t tell you. Speaking of you — does anyone else experience this…

  • One Word: Tier

    One Word: Tier

    “Tier” is my kind of word. It’s short. It has a neat sound. It’s familiar without being overused. Best of all, it’s useful. Physically, a tier is one of a series of stacked rows or levels. Rungs of a ladder, for instance, or the third row of seats in a stadium. Figuratively, a tier is…

  • One Word: This Here

    One Word: This Here

    Always-inquisitive reader Mahin Pouryaghma asks about the compound construction “this here”. It’s one she sometimes encounters in her home stomping ground of rural Georgia. Thanks, Mahin, for affording me a chance to reflect on this and similar expressions. I’m treating this one as a single word for reasons I explained in the article on “compound”.…

  • The Most Romantic Valentine City

    Happy Valentine’s Day from America’s Most Consistently Romantic City — Knoxville, Tennessee, home of “Notes from Stonehaven”.  Okay, so I had to weasel-word that (with “consistently”) in order to justify the “most” boast. Technically, Knoxville was bumped this year from first to third place by the new champ, Alexandria, Virginia. Congratulations, Alexandria. Don’t get used…

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