Something amazing about language: We speak it, we read it, we write it ... and we know doodle-squat about it. And more’s the pity when it comes to English, because I find its length and breadth fascinating. For one thing, if English were a dog, it’d be a mixed breed — in other words, a ...

Last week’s column was about one of my hobbies, etymology — the tracing of word and phrase origins. One of the words I mentioned was “Hoosegow,” a word for “jail,” which I heard in the cowboy movies of my childhood. But it wasn’t used only in cowboy movies; apparently, it was ...

Last week’s column was about one of my hobbies, etymology — the tracing of word and phrase origins. One of the words I mentioned was “Hoosegow,” a word for “jail,” which I heard in the cowboy movies of my childhood. But it wasn’t used only in cowboy movies; apparently, it was ...

CAVEAT: If you’re not a word lover, or even a word liker, you might find this column more tedious than tantalizing. If so, I’ll understand you’re not reading it. NB: I’ll understand, but doubt I’ll forgive. Anyhow, it’s obvious I’m a lexiphile, and have been as long ...

I think T.S. Elliott’s best-known lines are “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” They are, of course, his best-known because they seem the only ones anyone knows. But poetic snottiness aside, last Saturday I couldn’t have cared less about how the world ...

People who are cool in dicey situations we refer to as having nerves of steel. If anyone defined my sang froid — or more appropriately, my lack of it — they’d say I have nerves of tinfoil. It’s not that I fall to pieces under stress. Usually, when the going gets tough, I rise to the ...