Old-school news, just in time
by Kevin Burton I missed it and didn’t get to participate, but Merriam-Webster had a notice on social media inviting readers to vote for their favorite underused words. The dictionary published the results under the headline “12 Underrated Words That Deserve More Love.” I don’t agree with all the choices, but there was …
Continue reading “Panning For Gold In The Discount Word Bin”
by Kevin Burton People from Wichita, the nearest large city to me, are called Wichitans. That’s straightforward enough. People from Puebla, Mexico, a city very near to my heart, are called Poblanos. Why not Pueblanos? Not sure, good question. Wichitan and Poblano are demonyms. The word demonym is “Rooted in the Greek …
by Dictionary Scoop Coming from the Indo-European language family, Danish has some funny idiomatic expressions. Some will leave you scratching your head. For example, “reading a horse.” What’s that all about? Continue reading to learn nine Danish expressions and their meaning translated. 1-Mind the cows When life gets a bit hard, we all need …
Continue reading “When In Denmark, Speak As The Danish Speak”
by Kevin Burton Come and get it kids, quibble and bits, short takes, follow-ups from recent posts, bits of news….. A day or two after I wrote about the letter Z and its two pronunciations (zed and zee), Meriam-Webster made “zeitgeist” its word of the day. The dictionary says zeitgeist is “the …
by Kevin Burton Newsniks in general and I in particular have been accused of highlighting the negative side of life, seeking it out and advertising it. That’s not entirely fair, but neither is it a ridiculous assertion. It’s a discussion. But now via Merriam-Webster and as has been sung by Bing Crosby …
Continue reading “Here’s The Nice Side Of A Rich Vocabulary”
by Kevin Burton The Page 7 blog publishes five days a week, usually, and almost every time I post it, I tease it (verb) on Facebook. A tease (noun) is like a little commercial. Mine are two or three-sentence previews that I write to try to get people interested in reading it. …
by Kevin Burton It’s the beginning of a new year, so leave it to Page 7 to take you to the end – of the alphabet that is. May I be the first to wish you a very happy International Z Day. “Z Day, celebrated on Jan. 1, is a quirky and …
Continue reading “Last Word On Last Letter: Canada Says “Zed””
by Kevin Burton I knew sports played a big role in the shaping of our common language, but I didn’t know how big. We previously brought you a list of sports idioms on Page 7, but none of the ones from Dictionary Scoop that we posted yesterday or the one below, we’re on …
Continue reading “Keeping Score With The Language Of Sports”
by Dictionary Scoop Have you ever heard someone say “I’ll have to start from scratch”? Ever wondered what “in the nick of time” means? What all these expressions have in common is that they originated in the world of sports. Want to know more? Discover all those phrases you often say but didn’t know …
Continue reading “Sporty Origins Of Some Popular Expressions”
by Kevin Burton Mitch Holthus is the radio voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s really good at his job, in the overheated manner of the hometown play-by-play guy. There is a nearly-universal breathless presentation of sports that attempts to elevate it to something truly significant, when it really is not. Hey, …
Continue reading “Celebrate Your Victories, Even The Small Ones”
Page 7 