by Kevin Burton Yesterday we brought clarity to numerical words and phrases which are indefinite, in some cases to the point of mystification. And you have come back for more. Thanks! And here is a bonus number-word definition: If I say “thanks a bunch” or “Thanks a million” it’s all the same. …
Category Archives: language
Helpful Hints For Tricky Words And Phrases
by Kevin Burton I can still hear Rosa, one of my English as a Second Language students trying out a new word, “seldom.” I was a reasonably good teacher without having had any training. She was a very good student, having had better teachers in the earlier levels of English study. “Seldom.” …
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Producers Of Braille Are Touching Lives
by Kevin Burton Today we touch on two stories about braille being produced from unexpected sources. NBC Connecticut ran a story about female inmates at York Correctional Facility becoming certified as Braille transcriptionists. Five inmates completed the program Aug. 24. I wish NBC had quoited some of them. But here is part …
The Answer My Friend, Is In The Dictionary
by Kevin Burton I don’t know that Merriam-Webster consults Bob Dylan or vice versa, but the two are tied in today’s word list. “Blowin’ in the Wind” is among Dylan’s best and best-known works. So as not to be long-winded, let’s go directly to the dictionary’s list of words about the wind: Sirocco …
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Ten Brilliant Facts About Braille
by Kelli Finger (from Mental Floss website) Braille is a tactile system that blind people use to learn to read and write, invented in 1824 by a blind French educator named Louis Braille. He revolutionized an existing writing and reading system that allowed blind people to enjoy books and communication. I certainly don’t know …
Five-Dollar Words At A Deep Discount
by Kevin Burton Some lamps that my mother has and loves, I don’t like. I think they’re ugly. For years my insult of choice was to call them “obtuse.” But I was using that word incorrectly. My good buddies at Merriam-Webster say obtuse means: “not pointed or acute” or “ of an …
Chocolate And More Words From The Aztecs
by Kevin Burton If you have an appetite for words and/or dinner and dessert, you’re in the right place. One of the recent Words at Play columns from Merriam-Webster featured words from the Aztecs, who lived in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. The language they spoke (and about …
Perfect Word List For A Sleepy Saturday
by Kevin Burton If this starts to sound too much like the glass half empty-half full thing, please let me know. But when someone says, “You look like you’re half asleep” doesn’t that also mean you are half awake? And which is preferable, wakefulness or sleep? And in the literal sense of …
Does Merriam-Webster Hate Spunk?
by Kevin Burton I was sure I would see it. Lead-pipe sinch said I. Metaphysical certitude, as John McLaughlin used to say on The McLaughlin Group. Merriam -Webster put together a list of words about energy and enthusiasm and I happily scrolled to see what they had to say about the word “spunk.” …
Cows And Chickens’ Idiomatic Homecoming
by Kevin Burton American farm country has fed the world and supplied it with a number of mud-caked idioms, as we have seen with the help of Merriam-Webster. Today we bring it all home with our third and final installment of Barnyard Idioms. We start with an idiom touching on my job …
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