by Jamie Chavez | Jul 30, 2015 | Words & Language
Considering the temper of [Lindley] Murray’s writing, it may come as a surprise that he has nothing to say about slang. One feels confident that he would have dismissed it as a disgracegull aberration. But slang would not have meant much to him. The OED’s first...
by Jamie Chavez | Jun 11, 2015 | Words & Language
The “English dictionary,” in the sense that we commonly use the phrase today—as an alphabetically arranged list of English words, together with an explanation of their meanings—is a relatively new invention. Four hundred years ago there was no such convenience...
by Jamie Chavez | Apr 20, 2015 | Words & Language, Your Editor Says …
I have some bad news for you. You’ve been using that phrase wrong. I’ve had friends and colleagues use it wrong—in writing—and I have bitten my tongue, because, as you know, I am not a corrector unless I’ve been asked to be one. But I recently read it in Roxane Gay’s...
by Jamie Chavez | Dec 24, 2014 | Miscellany, Words & Language
On Christmas Eve last year, I was alone in the house, awaiting my son’s arrival from out of town the next morning. It was a quiet—but happily anticipatory—time. When I posted a comment on Facebook— A little melancholy tonight … but my heart is full. I am blessed in...
by Jamie Chavez | Sep 21, 2014 | Words & Language
The word until can be a preposition (it took until late that evening to unload the truck, for example) or a conjunction (we kept unloading until it got dark) and for many years I believed the shortened version of this word was ’til. As far as I was concerned, till was...
