language
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A Gaggle of Geese, a Cackle of Mad Scientists
For the word lovers out there, Electric Literature found a poster listing the collective nouns for all types of supernatural beings and creatures. Come across a group of yetis? It’s called a flurry. A group of zombies? That’s a vexation.…
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An Agnostic, Chortling Freelance Space-Yahoo
Amid all the meanings and uses that give a word its weight, it’s easy to forget that language is ultimately a system of arbitrary signs. Lexicographer Paul Dickson’s new book “Authorisms—Words Wrought by Writers” chronicles some of the most dynamic…
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On the Particular Origins of Some Literary Cliches
The phrase “little did she/he/they know” has plenty of history. The question is, when did it start being used for cheap suspense? The inversion of subject and verb sounds stilted and melodramatic, so the obvious culprit would be 19th century…
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Frequent Letters
Electric Literature has featured a cool infographic on the usage of letters in the English language. The results? Not all letters are used equally. Check it out here.
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Using Words to Empower Women
Over at Guernica, Rebecca Solnit writes about how coining new terms can create solidarity by giving a name to shared experiences. This, she says, is vital to feminism, particularly in the wake of the recent Isla Vista massacre: Language is power.…
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Literature Is Not Medicine
In The World Exchange, Alena Graedon’s debut novel, language is in danger, and reading becomes a means of salvation. Over at the New Yorker, bibliophile Peter C. Baker explains the problem with the idea that reading could be a panacea. In his words, “practical urgency…
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In Defense of Adverbs
Adverbs are bad, every writer has been told, repeatedly. Use them sparingly, if at all, is the advice commonly given. But adverbs do serve a purpose, and more often it is misuse, not overuse, that unfortunately taints bad writing. Robin…
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HAHAHAHA? LOL?
See here for a perspicuously articulated inquiry into the efficacy of one of our most oft-used signifiers. Here’s the thing about ‘lol’: What in the hell does that even mean? That I’m laughing out loud? Yeah, that really comes across when I’m…
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Like, Considering the Other Side
Critics might believe that “like” has infiltrated and degraded American English, but John McWhorter argues just the contrary. McWhorter claims that “like” is not a marker of the downfall of spoken language, but instead, a sign of its “growing sophistication.”…
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The Language of Desire
The alchemy of desire is much harder to master, its falls more tragic. And yet our language for it is maddeningly woolly. The great poets have striven for clarity here but most of us are doomed
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What Writers Love
It is rumored that verbomania is an actual word. If we look at the etymology of verbomania, we see that verbo- comes from the Latin word verbum, meaning “words.”