I sometimes marvel at our human desire to identify and name things. Just like how there is a day of the year honoring every interest imaginable — think National Spaghetti Day — there are words for various forms and patterns of writing. Usually very fancy, hard-to-spell, difficult-to-pronounce words, because, well, they can be. Today, we’ll […]

All words are unique. Each has its very own spelling, meaning and purpose. But some words are unique in other ways as well. Maybe it’s a word’s length, or its combination of letters, or even symmetry. Whatever, such words are good to know if, for instance, you ever find yourself in a word trivia contest […]

Some of the best writers I know were never English majors; one is a forester and another owned a bike shop, but they were both careful writers nevertheless, always proofreading what they’d written and not relying on spellcheck. But since English majors are expected to be good writers and know their words — and I […]

Just between you and I, this time I’d like to take a look at hypercorrectness. And I’ll start with the previous sentence. Of course old English teachers everywhere will tell you that, because of the preposition, it should be, “Just between you and me.” And they would be right. Usually. You see, the problem is […]

I was recently looking through a math book, which is where I happened across a torus, a geometric shape that resembles a doughnut. And while I’ve never heard anybody ordering a jelly torus at the local bakery, I started thinking (and I’ll admit it’s quite a leap) about the unusual names or alternate terms for […]

A while back I took a look at some of the words used and misused in local television newscasts. As anyone who’s a regular reader of this column knows, I can’t leave well enough alone, so this week I”ll bite the hand that feeds me and take a closer look at some of the words […]

I’m going to have to be short with you. Don’t worry, I’m not cross with you. All I mean is that today we’re going to be looking at abbreviations — shortened forms of words and phrases. There are various types. Let’s start with good old contractions. As you know, they’re words that either omit letters […]

“Dreams can come true again when everything old is new again.” — Peter Allen Have you ever wondered what would happen to a group of teens and twenty-somethings if they were locked in an escape room that contained an analogue clock, a rotary-dial phone and a list of cursive instructions that included a phone contact […]

As you might expect of someone from my generation, I watch the evening news on television — which is what I’m going to talk about this week. No, I’m not going to go on about the news itself (which seems to be getting more and more bizarre by the day), but will instead be looking […]

Today, we’ll take a look at emojis. I know what you’re thinking: “But, word guy, emojis aren’t words, they’re symbols. Has your cheese slipped off your cracker?” While Mrs. Word Guy would probably answer that question in the affirmative, please hear me out. My reasons for writing about emojis are many. First of all, they […]