by Kevin Burton I actually did this, I promise. Neither Winston Churchill nor any other learned observer from the past, present or future, would have called this “my finest hour.” I bring you this, even though there may be somebody reading Page 7 for the first time today. Sheesh. There was a …
Category Archives: Words
Scrabble Words And “Y” As A Proud Vowel
by Kevin Burton Merriam-Webster promised me a list of Scrabble words without vowels, but delivered a bunch of words (with one exception) with the letter Y in them. Y is a vowel, a card-carrying vowel. The fact that it has a part-time job as a consonant does not change that. The venerable dictionary …
The Unkindest Contranym Of All? Ask Fido
by Kevin Burton Imagine if you will, a Richard Pryor bit from the 70s, that could have been, to introduce the concept of the contranym, a word with two opposite meanings. These lines are from the family puppy, whose usual panting, tail-wagging enthusiasm for a car ride (oh boy!) has gone tragically wrong: …
Far From Being Obsolete, Braille Is Essential
by Tracy Conly (Tracy Conly is a longtime friend from our days at the Ohio State School for the Blind, a great Braille reader and advocate for the blind. This is her reaction to our March 15 story “A New Tool In The Fight For Braille Literacy.”) “Braille changes lives. It gives thousands …
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More English Words From Japanese
by Kevin Burton Some of my totally blind friends used to fold dollar bills in certain ways so they would know what denomination they were. That was before the days of bill reader devices, so I’m not sure anybody does that folding any more. Anyway I used to call that folding that people …
English Words That Come From Japanese
by Kevin Burton Words do not respect borders, nor do they need passports to move from country to country. We don’t think of Japan so much as an origin for English words, but plenty of words are borrowed from Japanese. Merriam-Webster dictionary has served up a basketful, some of which I bring today. …
Multiple English Idioms By The Numbers
by Dictionary Scoop In every language, there is a type of gem known as idioms that add spice to our conversations, relying on context and shared understanding to convey messages in a not-so-direct way. Today, we’ll explore ten idioms in English that play with numbers. 1 One-horse town Many idioms begin as a literal phrase that …
Eight Words Named After Real People
by interestingfacts.com Words named after specific people are known as eponyms. After enough time passes, the namesake is often forgotten while the word sticks around, so many eponyms no longer even register as someone’s name. These eight eponyms are among the most surprising, and cover subjects from musical instruments to facial hair to …
Here’s The Very Definition Of Happiness
by Dictionary Scoop For Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, happiness is a warm puppy. For some, it’s a habit. For others, it is a philosophy, a quest, or an ideal, among many other things. Join us on a linguistic journey through the lexicon of happiness, discovering the many shades and …
Songwriting School, Class In Session
by Kevin Burton International Songwriters Day was observed yesterday and I’m staying on that theme. This post is a service to all you songwriters, or really any kind of writers, out there. But who am I kidding, it’s also to keep my head in the game and stoke those musical fires again. …
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