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PublishedDecember 31, 2023
In a word: Subitizing again? Year-ending words
Chalaza, asynchronous and other random words to ponder before the new year.
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PublishedDecember 24, 2023
In a word: Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah to all!
The stories behind our holiday words are gifts to all word lovers.
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PublishedDecember 10, 2023
In a word: ‘Moist’ and other loathsome words
Move over 'curd' and 'ointment.' It appears 'moist' is the most hated word in America.
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PublishedDecember 3, 2023
In a word: Waterford humorist Artemus Ward
Ward’s lectures were designed not to inform but strictly to entertain and amuse his growing audiences, arguably making him the world’s first standup comedian.
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PublishedNovember 26, 2023
In a word: German loanwords and cognates
"'Delicatessen' is a loanword, I think you call them," said my friend Claus. "You know, words you Americans basically stole from us and use as your own."
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PublishedNovember 19, 2023
In a word: ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’
'Onism' is 'the frustration of being stuck in just one body that inhabits only one place at a time, (and) the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience.'
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PublishedNovember 12, 2023
In a word: Exploring the ‘Y’ of our alphabet
We answer the burning question bothering us — OK, me — since we were young schoolchildren: 'Is Y a consonant or a vowel?'
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PublishedOctober 29, 2023
In a word: With Z, the end is just the beginning
The last letter of the alphabet has some first-rate qualities. What's all the buzz? Read on.
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PublishedOctober 17, 2023
In a word: Today’s column deserves X rating
The popular and versatile letter can stand for almost anything, or nothing, and be pronounced a host of ways, or not at all.
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PublishedOctober 15, 2023
In a word: How meds get those odd names
The letters H, J and W are often avoided when creating brand names because they’re difficult to pronounce in some languages.
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