wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: April 2009
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Laser, Maser, Phaser, Taser. Here's a family of words which came from acronyms, and we should be grateful that the full expressions have faded away. Laser comes from "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". Maser is a less common term, with Microwaves instead of Light - some stars are known to focus beams of radiation in the microwave part of the spectrum, oddly, it's a useful tracer of water molecules. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). A blog of word lore.
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: Park on the parkway
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2012/05/park-on-parkway.html
Saturday, May 26, 2012. Park on the parkway. George Carlin was a master of wordplay. One of the bits of his that I hear quoted most often is under the subject of how confusing and arbitrary language can be: "Why do we park in the driveway, but drive on the parkway? Without even looking it up, one can see that it's a matter of context, and a language where compound words are so easily made up and added to the vocabulary. I've heard "tollway" actually used, it seems clumsy but it gets the point across.
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: George Harrison and the grotty grotto
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2012/05/george-harrison-and-grotty-grotto.html
Saturday, May 19, 2012. George Harrison and the grotty grotto. Word lore can pop up in unexpected places. I just saw the old Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" again, and there's a scene where George Harrison describes a shirt as "grotty" (sounds like "grotto"), to which he quickly adds, "You know, grotesque.*" It's odd for a rock star to stop and give a definition of a slang word at a particular moment in time, so let's look into it. Oddly, right after that scene, John Lennon walks off stage with a showg...
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: A map of onions?
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-map-of-onions.html
Thursday, January 31, 2013. A map of onions? This just came along on my facebook stream - I'm linked up to a lot of authors and researchers, so it's an interesting mix. This article. Traces (and maps) variations of the word "onion" across Europe. Just thought you'd find it interesting, and it shows how complex the linguistic interactions can be even for such a simple thing. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). A blog of word lore. My books and chapbooks. Blank Spaces and other dangers. Year of the Twist.
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: Thank the gods, it's Tuesday?
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2012/05/thank-gods-its-tuesday.html
Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Thank the gods, it's Tuesday? Our days of the week also have some hidden meanings in their names. They're actually quite odd. Sunday and Monday are named after the Sun and Moon. Those are no brainers. But the rest? Tuesday is named after the Norse god Tyr. Wednesday is named after the Germanic god Woden. Friday is named after the Norse goddess Freya, or the Germanic goddess Frigg, who are nearly the same. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). A blog of word lore. Year of the Twist.
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: March 2009
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
Monday, March 16, 2009. Salary - worth your salt? Considering how many people bring home a salary, it's funny how the origin of the word has gotten lost. Salary is from the Latin salarium. Which was the allowance given to Roman soldiers for buying salt. Salt was a large part of the economy for many early civilizations. Salt was needed for preserving meats, and played a role in history right up to the time of Gandhi. Sunday, March 8, 2009. This site has the best dicussion of it:. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: February 2009
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
Saturday, February 28, 2009. One of the strangest ways that words creep into our language is through product names and company names. A product can be so successful that its name becomes a synonym for the object itself, like Kleenex (tissue). Naturally, the exact company history is a little more complex, with a few earlier companies (Haloid Co, Rectigraph, Batelle) working together to form the company we know today. See Xerox Company history. Monday, February 16, 2009. A story of months. April" is a bit ...
wordfixx.blogspot.com
WordFixx: to be or what??
http://wordfixx.blogspot.com/2012/05/to-be-or-what.html
Saturday, May 12, 2012. To be or what? Strangely, the most commonly used verb in any language - "to be" - is often highly irregular. A quick look in English: I am, you/they/we are, thou art, he/she is. Past tense: I/he/she was, you/they/we were. Past participle: been. The A-Root, from Old English aron, survives in am, are, and art. Some sources mix this in with the S-Root, but it seems a likely blend either way. Originally, these verbs had slightly different meanings (shades of existing, remaining, dwell...
unlikelytimes.blogspot.com
The Unlikely Times: Carnivorous Deer & Squirrels?
http://unlikelytimes.blogspot.com/2015/03/carnivorous-deer-squirrels.html
A journal of the hard-to-believe and the not quite believable. Thursday, March 12, 2015. Carnivorous Deer and Squirrels? Well, let's tone that down to "omnivorous". Here are some reports of deer eating certain meaty bits . The strangest possible revenge for this might be a squirrel that eats deer? Someone actually asked at answers.com:. Can a squirrel eat a deer? Oddly, this same "vampire squirrel" is also mentioned in Science magazine (June 2014) for being so darn fluffy. Posted by scott vee. Carnivorou...
