by Dwane | Jan 19, 2023 | Vocabulary
Fortnight fourteen days; two weeks. Fortnight is a portmanteau word. A portmanteau is a blended word. The combination takes on the meanings of both words. Fortnight is a combination of fourteen and night. Change the spelling and, for some reason you end with the...
by Dwane | Jan 18, 2023 | Ebook
I have written a book on goal setting. I am now in the process of editing the book. This is an excerpt. ================================================= When to retire I have known people who retired at the age of 60 simply to play golf and watch TV. What if they...
by Dwane | Jan 18, 2023 | Uncategorized
When we fuse two words we can create a new word, and sometimes a new concept. We call such words portmanteau words. Not long ago, I heard the portmanteau word slacktivism for the first time. Slactivism: half-hearted activism We participate in slactivism by posting...
by Dwane | Jan 17, 2023 | Vocabulary
Lawfare The use of the judicial system against one’s opponents Lawfare, a portmanteau word, is a combination of law and warfare. C.S. Lewis once pointed out that we live under something like administrative lawfare. “I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of...
by Dwane | Jan 16, 2023 | Vocabulary
I like portmanteau words. If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me explain. A portmanteau was once a traveling case for clothing. Once you reached your destination, it could double as a small piece of furniture. The word comes from the French...
by Dwane | Jan 16, 2023 | Uncategorized
I have written a book on goal setting. I am now in the process of editing the book. This is an excerpt. ================================================= How to become an expert Expert, experiment, and experience all come from the same Latin word. The word is...
by Dwane | Jan 14, 2023 | Tip of the Week
Perhaps you have heard of Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time allowed. We have all experienced this. Give yourself the weekend to finish that report for school, and it will take the entire weekend. Give yourself only Saturday to...
by Dwane | Jan 13, 2023 | Uncategorized
Vindictive: vengeful; given to revenge. Sometimes Latin and English get along quite well. A Latin word and an English word will find themselves in complete agreement. Vindictive comes from the Latin noun vindicta, meaning vengeance. Someone with a vindictive spirit...
by Dwane | Jan 12, 2023 | Uncategorized
Postulant This morning, one of my students taught me this word in Latin class. I had never heard it before. We were talking about English words that come from the Latin word postulare (to demand or ask). From the Latin postulare (to demand, or ask), English...
by Dwane | Jan 12, 2023 | Uncategorized
Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The New Year is a great time to set goals. I’ve been working on a book on goals for a while now. But, to be honest, the entire goal-setting process can be summed up in three quick steps....
by Dwane | Jan 10, 2023 | Uncategorized
I have written a book on goal setting. I am now in the editing process. As I edit, I will post most of the book here, for free. This is from the introduction. ================================================= Your Potential If you do not know me, I should warn...
by Dwane | Jan 10, 2023 | Education, English, Vocabulary
Criticize: to find fault; to point out flaws real or perceived I took some time off for Christmas and New Year. No one criticized me. Pretty impressive, guys. You could be nicer than you think you are. Criticize comes from the Greek word χριτιχός (kritikos)...
by Dwane | Jan 3, 2023 | Uncategorized
Happy New Year, everyone! Live classes on this site will resume next week on January 9, 2023. All previous classes are available 24/7 of course. If you are trying to catch up, you still have almost a week to do so.
by Dwane | Dec 17, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
This week, one of my students translated egg nog into French. She ended up with the phrase: lait de poule. Lait is French for milk, and poule is French for hen. Put the two together and you get, “hen milk”. Um. This threw me for a loop. I started wondering,...
by Dwane | Dec 15, 2022 | English, Vocabulary
Truckle: to yield out of weakness Most of us know what a trundle bed is. In case you don’t, a trundle bed is a low bed on wheels. When not in use trundle beds slide beneath other beds. Evidently, in some places, trundle beds are truckle beds. Truckle comes from...
by Dwane | Dec 12, 2022 | Tip of the Week
Whenever I look for a book I go through several steps. Since I tend to be rather frugal, I always start with our local library. You can check out audiobooks from your local library using the free Libby app. To use Libby, you need a library card and, of course, the...
by Dwane | Dec 9, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
Ever wondered why some cities have ‘ham’ attached to their names? Birmingham, Nottingham, Gotham, Buckingham, and even Hampshire? The Old English word for home or homestead is ‘ham.’ ‘Ham’ is also the source of our English word ‘home.’ As the three little pigs said,...
by Dwane | Dec 8, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
A few days ago, one of my students asked where the eight tiny reindeer got their names. I knew there were some German names in there, but beyond that, I was not sure. So, I went looking. The reindeer first show up in a poem by Clement C. Moore. Mr. Moore wrote A...
by Dwane | Dec 7, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
I don’t feel like posting a word today. So, here is one of my all-time favorite jokes about the English language. Maybe. I can’t tell if it’s a joke or if it’s true. The Japanese eat very little fat And suffer fewer heart attacks than...
by Dwane | Dec 6, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
Ballyhoo: to advertise noisily; to publicize using extreme, loud methods The marketers ballyhooed the movie, but it flopped on opening day. Ballyhoo shows up in English in the early 1900s. It was originally a circus word. A ballyhoo was a sideshow used to lure...
by Dwane | Dec 5, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
A student recently posted this question in the forums: In Chapter four of Lingua Latina, a new word is “baculum”, meaning “stick”. In the world of logic, there is a fallacy, called Ad Baculum. I am assuming that these are related. Does it mean, “to the stick”? Here is...
by Dwane | Dec 3, 2022 | Uncategorized
A few weeks ago my wife and I wanted to watch a funny movie. We were in the mood to laugh. We made it 15 minutes into one movie and turned it off. It was disgustingly crude. We tried a second movie. It was worse. Sigh. Hollywood. Reluctantly, we decided to watch a...
by Dwane | Dec 3, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
Kibitzer: someone who offers unwanted advice; someone who offers unsolicited opinions Kibitzer is a Yiddish word. Originally, a kibitzer described someone looking over your shoulder during a card game, offering unwelcome advice. These days, a kibitzer is an...
by Dwane | Dec 1, 2022 | Education, English, Vocabulary
If you are throwing things out of your window today, consider first shouting “Gardyloo!” Gardyloo is a warning shout. Back in the old days, when pots were emptied into the streets, the one pouring whatever they were pouring into the streets would warn...
by Dwane | Nov 30, 2022 | Uncategorized
I study words for a living. I am always a little surprised when I run across a word like Everywhen. It looks like a typo. It isn’t. Everywhen is an English adverb. It means: always, at all times. So, there you go. When it comes to English, it’s best to...
