All Verbal Energy
Let’s. Bring. This. To. A. Full. Stop.You know those periods people leave off their text messages? The Monitor’s language columnist has an idea of where they are ending up.
Punctuation that maybe packs more punchThe ordinary period, which for centuries has been simply ending sentences, has lately acquired a reputation for real aggression.
Architects redux and the case for jargonThe Monitor’s language columnist surprises herself by making the case for jargon.
Architects’ more concrete vocabularyPart of the magic of language is finding just the right word for a particular need, and architecture is full of such specialized terms.
Architects and their peculiar vernacularAn architecture website asked, What are the weirdest words that only architects use?
Droning on about those things in the skyA look at why unmanned aerial vehicles take their common name from a type of bee.
FIFA, ‘disloyal’ fees, and false friendsIn the world soccer scandal, the dubious translation of a Swiss-French legal term highlights the confusions caused by ‘false friends.’
Feeling conflicted about deconflictionA Pentagon term for efforts to keep US and Russian forces out of each other’s way in Syria falls abruptly from favor.
Mea culpa – a cautionary taleAn alert reader’s correction of a factual error prompts some thoughts on collective memory in the age of the Web, and on what to make of people whose achievements may be offset by the repugnant ideas they embrace.
A tale of taxes, tailles, and tenorsA lexicographical mystery is resolved.
Undisturbed amid what we know of turmoilA look at turmoil, turbulence, and tumult and other words for ‘trouble’: Do they share common roots – or just closely related meanings?
Pointing our way to clear communicationA look at the surprisingly fascinating history of punctuation.
We finally pahk the cah on Hahvahd YahdAs incoming freshmen move into their dorms, new light is shed on a famous Boston ‘accent test.’
Office of the future, offices of the pastAn article on the ‘office of the future’ prompts some research on the history of the word office.
‘Driverless’ cars: a law unto themselves?Self-driving cars may be on their way in, but do we really want to call them ‘autonomous’?
Relics: What’s given up, what’s left behindNow that the Confederate flag crisis in South Carolina is resolved, just what is a ‘relic,’ anyway?
Three new words of the summer – so farA word that’s suddenly hot among kids, a word that gives us a name for something we’ve done for thousands of years, and a word just made up from scratch, so there.
Astronomers, designers, etc., and moreWhy editors don’t like ‘etc.,’ or its Gen-X variant ‘and more.’
‘Owning’ Hillary’s fashion senseA blog post on Hillary Clinton’s campaign-trail jokes about personal style and illustrates some grammar points, too.
Getting restless over native advertisingOK, we understand that news organizations need the money, but can’t they call this stuff something else?
