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Readers Sound Off on Words that Sound Off
The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of its sound ("buzz," "splash," "zap") is called "onomatopoeia." Last summer I asked readers to invent a general term for "UN-onomatopoeia" …Read more.
Misuse of 'Frequent' is Frequent
Q: Does "frequented" imply often? I have heard "they occasionally frequented" and even "they rarely frequented." Is that possible? — David Markowitz, West Hartford, Conn.
A: What's next? "They rarely …Read more.
'Whom' is Where the Heart is
The "who/whom" dilemma is the health care debate of grammar. The issues involved are so complicated and convoluted that no one really understands them.
That's why the late William Safire threw up his hands in 1992 and advocated a kind of …Read more.
Why Are These Sentences Loony?
What's wrong with these sentences?
1. Like the duck, the loon's nest is built near the shore.
2. The loon is a Bow Lake resident, on which several other loons live.
3. The baby loon is four times smaller than its mother.
That's right; they're loony …Read more.
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Words for Food Contain Strange IngredientsDid you know that there's a hatchet in your hash, a spear in your garlic and a thread in your fillet? Diner: "Waiter, there's a thread in my fillet!" Waiter: "Sew?" It's hard to imagine someone using a battle-axe to make hash — "Hold that potato steady; this time I'll try to come within a foot of the darn thing!" — but "hash" ultimately derives from the French "hache" (battle-ax). The diminutive form of "hache" — "hatchette" (small ax) — became "hatchet" in English. The verb form of "hache" was "hacher" (to chop), so food, such as meat and potatoes, that was chopped into small pieces came to be called "hash" in English. Back in the Middle Ages, someone — perhaps the same guy who was using a battle-ax to make hash — thought that a stalk of garlic resembled a leek shaped like a spear. So the Old English word for this herb with the pungent bulbs evolved as "garleac," literally "spear" (gar) "leek" (leac). "Gar," by the way, is also the root of our verb "gore," meaning "to spear" or, alternately, "to scare the heck out of everyone with predictions of global warming." As for that thread in the fillet, it derives from the French "filet" (little thread), which in turn came from the Latin "filium" (thread). (And when the English needed a name for a musical instrument with strings, they proclaimed, "Voilà! — ‘viola.'") The labels on other foods list some surprising linguistic ingredients. There's moss in your "mushrooms," for instance. The French first cultivated these fungi on beds of "mousse" (moss), so they were called "mousseron," which became "mushroom" in English. And the Romans nailed down the name "clove" because they thought this spice bud looked like a nail ("clovus" in Latin). We're accustomed to seeing faces carved on pumpkins. But did you know there's a countenance on your coconut? Some people, who were probably drinking too many piña coladas, thought that the three holes on the bottom of a coconut resembled a human face. The word for a grimace or a grimacing face in Spanish and Portuguese is "coco," so a nut with such a face was dubbed a "coconut." Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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