Great insults pepper the comedies and tragedies of William Shakespeare. (Though the Bard of Avon is known for his terms of endearments as well.) From A Midsummer Night’s Dream to King Henry IV, here are a few of our favorites. You canker blossom! This flowery barb is delivered by the newly lovelorn Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream after her beloved, Lysander, expresses his disinterest …
Year after year, one thing remains constant with Adele’s music: it makes the tears flow. You may think her soulful lyrics are the reason songs like “Hello” and “Someone Like You” turn on the waterworks, but there’s a whole lot more going on in Adele’s music. What is the word for why Adele’s music makes us cry? Surprisingly, it’s not the lyrics that are really …
Most of the time when we talk about someone creating a new word we speak of the inventor with admiration, or even awe. We think of the linguistic creations of long-dead writers, such as Shakespeare, as signs of their genius, or evidence that they singlehandedly chiseled a new life form out of granite and bequeathed it to the English-speaking people. We applaud these people who …
The similar spellings and pronunciations of allusion and illusion can cause even seasoned writers to second-guess their choice of words. Today we will examine and clarify the differences between these two terms, so you won’t be fooled again by their deceptive likeness. What do allusion and illusion mean? An allusion is a reference, direct or implied, to something or someone. Allusions are often found in …
Since 1990, the American Dialect Society has held a Word of the Year vote, which is open to the public. This year’s vote takes place on January 8, 2016 in Washington DC. Over the past few weeks, linguists have been discussing nominations for various categories, and the ADS website has a nice roundup of 2015 Word of the Year candidates. Dictionary.com announced our own Word of …
