Feb

21

Word of the Week: February 20th, 2010.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

February 21, 2010 | 2 Comments

Occasionally I’ll say that I used to be indecisive but now I can’t decide what I am. The problem I’ve had my whole life is I don’t want to make a hasty decision, hasty coming from an Old English word that means “violent, vehement, or impetuous”. I think the impetuous part has it right, although [...]

Feb

6

Word Of The Week: February 6th, 2010.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

February 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I’m pretty sure I’m fluent in the English language, although I could be wrong about that. As Steve Martin once said, some people have a way with words, and others…not have way. Anyway, English is the only language I’m fluent in. I could claim to be fairly good at Latin, but I have a long [...]

Jan

30

Word Of The Week: January 30th, 2010.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

Several years ago I read an article in Discover magazine about the end of the universe. It was a pretty spooky description of what the end might be like–even though it’s trillions of years in the future. I think the current theory is that all matter in the universe is currently drifting apart–there won’t be [...]

Jan

27

Goodbye, Beaver.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 27, 2010 | 2 Comments

It’s apocryphal, but supposedly Albert Einstein once said that the two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. I’m sure harnessing the power of hydrogen will bring about some great advances but if we could ever harness the power of stupidity our potential would be limitless.
Coming right on the heels of the [...]

Jan

26

Next They’ll Take “Gullible” Out Of The Dictionary.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Remember when you were in elementary school and you’d look up dirty words in the dictionary? Sometimes they weren’t there, but when they were it was pretty thrilling. And then, presumably, you grew up. If you have kids of your own you might wonder if they also look up dirty words in the dictionary, but, [...]

Jan

17

Word Of The Week: January 16th, 2010.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Recently I’ve been thinking about the word compassion. The prefix com comes from the Latin word meaning “with”, so in a way it means “with passion”. Maybe that’s why, even though I think of sympathy as a synonym for compassion, I think compassion has a more active connotation. You feel sympathy for someone, but you [...]

Jan

9

Word Of The Week: January 9th, 2009

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 9, 2010 | 2 Comments

I’ve had a debate with a friend over the word bizarre, specifically in the title of the show Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern. My friend thinks the word is inherently insulting, that it treats other cultures like circus freaks. I think, first of all, that Zimmern’s stated desire to understand and celebrate what’s different about [...]

Jan

2

Word Of The Week: January 2nd, 2010

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

January 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I thought I’d start off the new year with the word abyss. Most people think of it as a frightening or even depressing thing. It comes from a Greek word meaning “bottomless”, after all, and the same root gives us the word abysmal. The ocean’s depths are usually referred to as the abyss, and it [...]

Dec

26

Word Of The Week: December 26th, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

December 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

Unless I’ve miscounted I’ve gone through the alphabet twice and 2009 has graced us with an additional Saturday. As a parting shot to the year that was, here are a few completely random thoughts about language:
For most of my life I’ve heard that Eskimos had anywhere from ten to three-hundred different words for snow. Then [...]

Dec

19

Word Of The Week: December 19th, 2009.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

December 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

Every once in a while in the store I’ll still see a pair of button-fly jeans. It’s a fad I never did understand. I’ll always prefer the zipper, Gideon Sundback’s great invention which was unleashed–er, I mean, which helped zip up the world in 1925. The Oxford English Dictionary is fuzzy on the etymology of [...]

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