Posts tagged as:

language

MIDNIGHT: technically, twelve o’clock a.m.

December 31, 2011

Midnight is one of those words that was created to describe something literally.  Its literal meaning is “middle of the night.”  If that seems strange to you at all, it may be because 12:oo a.m. is hardly the middle of a contemporary night. I suppose that in the century in which the word originated it [...]

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WHATEVER: nation’s most annoying word

December 23, 2011

It doesn’t take a lot for a teenager to be characterized as ”annoying.”  It comes with the territory, as a teen lurches through the predictable stage of growing independence.  Parents know nothing. Rules are unfair.  “Everybody” is doing what they want to do.  And then, there’s the whole thing about language.  A new vocabulary emerges [...]

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ABSTRUSE: hard to understand

October 24, 2011

  An explanation that just doesn’t make things clear is said to be abstruse.  You’ve been there.  You ask someone a question about what something means, or how something works.  The answer you get leaves you in an even-more-confused state. It is very disconcerting to the person giving the explanation, because the answer is perfectly [...]

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CONDOLENCES: expressions of sympathy at the time of death

August 10, 2011

Yesterdays poignant arrival of the caskets of the 30 military men killed in Afghanistan at Dover Air Force Base was sobering.   The President joined others in recognizing the sacrifice of their lives and the nation found itself almost speechless as it tried to sort out the meaning of this tragic loss. Sprinkled throughout the reports [...]

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RACIST: description of an activity which promotes the superiority of members of one race over another

June 11, 2011

An article in this weeks’ newspapers referred to a place in California where a cemetery had constructed headstones above the graves of several dozen people which identified the remains buried there as having been transferred from a place called “The N****r Cemetery.” That camouflaged word is the famous “N” word which the media have agreed [...]

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UNIQUE: unlike any other … period!

May 7, 2011

Something that really sours my milk is the use of comparative terms with the word unique. I couldn’t begin to calculate the number of  times have I been listening to someone speak, or reading an article when the phrase pops out, “It was a really unique experience.” It is fingernails on the chalkboard, brakes squealing, [...]

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TOTEM POLE: location, location, location

May 1, 2011

Most people are fascinated by the products of  Indian* woodcarvers which are called totem poles. Throughout the country there are locations where the poles have been erected, some in more distant times and others more recently.  In Indian culture, the characters of the totems depicted are meant to be a means of telling a story [...]

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GOOD PAYING JOBS: employment that is lucrative

March 10, 2011

There are words and phrases that jar me.   Sometimes it is because of the spelling or pronunciation; at other times it is some minor issue that just doesn’t settle with me.   One of those terms is Good Paying Jobs.   I see it a lot these days when unemployment is so much a part of the [...]

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PHONICS: the practice of “sounding out” syllables in unfamiliar words

October 17, 2010

Even though I bristle at the sexism of the cartoon I’ve chosen, I have to admit that it’s correct.  Girls tend to do better with such things as phonics than boys.   I’m told it has to do with the way the brain works.  That’s not to say that boys can’t learn phonics, but just that [...]

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ARRANT: downright; thorough; unmitigated; notorious

October 2, 2010

 The word arrant seems unlikely to win “The Most Commonly Used Word in American English” award. I had to say it over a few times to myself, let it roll around on my tongue like a new wine, and then, unable to figure it out intuitively, go to the dictionary.  It was one of those [...]

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