Hopium
If you thought the 2008 financial crisis signaled the end of “irrational exuberance”, the overly …
Up Your Alley … or In Your Wheelhouse?
Something may be up your alley or up your street, but can it be “in …
Strike Superfluous Words from Your Writing
“Make every word tell”: this sound advice from The Elements of Style speaks not …
Does your “most” mean the mostest?
Numbers add both comforting precision and eerie uncertainty to life. For precision’s sake, we like …
… and other nonsense words you’ll want to know
We rarely tolerate nonsense, but we have a soft spot for “nonsense words”. They seem …
No Chicanery – But a Take on Chicane
English has many words with multiple meanings. Can we say there’s an art to using …
Make Those Needless Words Vanish
Can you write fewer words and keep the meaning you intended? Of course! If you …
A Return to Yesteryear
You may consider the word “yesteryear” to be a clumsy fusion of “yesterday” and “year”. …
Kerfuffle
Some seldom-used words have a particular charm: their meaning is clear simply from their spelling …
Words that Aren’t Quite Words
Copying and pasting text or images is an established and tidy practice: we copy the …