Talking About Words

  1. Adorkable blends

    Adorkable. Is that really a word? What about ginormous? Linguists call them “blends” and they’ve been mixing it up for a while.

  2. Quotable quotes, or is it quotations?

    Somewhere along the line, the formal noun quotation was truncated down to its more casual cousin, quote. Critics complain that’s too breezy. Advocates argue otherwise.

  3. Can a word mean its own opposite?

    If a box is “still unpacked,” does that mean it’s still full or still empty?

  4. Slang: It's totes legit

    Video: If you’re using the phone, getting the flu, or buying gas, you’re also using slang.

  5. That's what they say

    ‘His or her’? ‘He or she’? Just how terrible is the Singular They?

  6. Hopefully or full of hope?

    A case where it might be fine to break the grammar rules.

  7. Now I lie, er, lay, um…

    What’s the difference between ‘lie’ and ‘lay’? And where did it come from, anyway?

  8. An awesome mess

    Of all the quirks in English, spelling has to be the most wonderful and infuriating. Case in point: “colonel.”

  9. Is problematize a problem?

    What do you think about “-ize” words? Many people deplore them, but that probably doesn’t make much difference.