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 …
Tag Archives: Merriam-Webster
Flying Pigs And Uncounted Chickens
by Kevin Burton I seem to remember on The Beverly Hillbillies, one or more of the Clampetts describing someone as “muley” to mean they were exceptionally stubborn. Now I see that Merriam-Webster, the dictionary supplying us with idioms from farm country, defines muley as “hornless.” Stay tuned for our second helping of …
Idioms Straight From The Horse’s Mouth
by Kevin Burton Today I am owning my farm-country standing and taking a look at some phrases we have exported to the rest of the country. Merriam-Webster calls them “barnyard idioms.” I don’t love that name but I must admit some of these phrases are more than a little muddy. From Kansas …
Words For Your Wild, Carefree, Summer
by Kevin Burton Summer has not arrived but planning for summer has. Our friends at Merriam-Webster have provided some words that may or may not describe your 2023 getaway(s). Frankly, I would avoid some of these, but that’s up to you: Jaunty adjective: sprightly in manner or appearance. When jaunty first came into English use …
Wobble Talk And Fighting Words In English
by Kevin Burton Here’s one subject that never came up when I was teaching English in Mexico – thank God! In English, when you see the vowel combination “ae” how do you pronounce it? This was brought to my attention on an otherwise glorious Saturday morning by our friends at the Merriam-Webster …
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More Words About Deep Thinking
by Kevin Burton Last Friday I presented some of the words about thinking compiled by Merriam-Webster. Today I bring you the rest of their list. Call this overthinking if you like. It wouldn’t be my first visit to that particular boulevard. Whereas all the words I included Friday are useful, most of …
Thinking Deeply With Merriam-Webster
by Kevin Burton My friend and co-worker on my college newspaper Tim, once suggested that thinking become a new sport. That’s something that should really be pursued. In this thinksport, there should be a penalty for speaking without thinking. Maybe I’ll continue this thought later. For now, I want to share …
Words For The Cranky And Disagreeable
by Kevin Burton God help me not to resemble this post. But today we tune into Merriam-Webster’s “19 words for the cranky and disagreeable,”part of the words at play column on its website. We will not get to all 19, but here are some of the more helpful terms as you seek to …
Words Borrowed From Foreign Languages
by Kevin Burton When I travel to foreign lands such as Mexico or Mississippi, I bring back souvenirs. I’m sure you do too in your travels. Some of the souvenirs we bring back are words and phrases. Today we look at some favorites from the Merriam Webster dictionary. Their list is of words …
Words For Real Life Or For Scrabble
by Kevin Burton “Scrabble” is not a German word meaning “one letter off,” that’s just my little joke. Scrabble also at its essence is not a word game as commonly supposed, but a game of mathematics and strategic placement of little tile soldiers. For the words used in scrabble aren’t words so …
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