Sesquiotica

hurst

Posted on February 17, 2019 | 2 comments

In my last word tasting I sampled brae, a name I’ve known on some neighbourhoods that I have heard of but seldom visited and never lived in. It’s one of the loose allsorts of suburb-name morphemes that float above the involuted streets on maps of the sprawling suburbs in the Great White North: wood, cliff, cedar, side, bine, land, thorn, lea, crest, vale, ridge, maple, oak, glen, bank, fair, field, gate, ville, dale, park, mead, view, bay, green, hurst, may, mount, summer, sunny, land, spring, spruce, hill, valley, grove (I forgot those last five last time)… Pick two, almost any two, and you get a subdivision somewhere (or at the very least a street): Cedarlea, Woodvale, Oakmead, Hillhurst, Sunnyside, Glencrest, Mapleview, Fairmount, Valleyvale… Is Valleyvale redundant? Well, so is Hillhurst. Continue reading →

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Posted in word tasting notes

Tagged hurst, word tasting notes

brae

Posted on February 16, 2019 | 2 comments

I tend to think of this word as one of the bits sliding about in the widget drawer from which developers pull pieces for names of neighbourhoods. It’s jumbled in with wood and cliff and cedar and side and bine and land and thorn and lea and crest and vale and ridge and maple and oak and glen and bank and fair and field and gate and ville and dale and hill and park and mead and view and bay and green and hurst and may and mount and summer and sunny and land… Every time you’re building a new neighbourhood, if you don’t want to go ahead and name it after whatever you bulldozed to build it, just reach into that drawer and grab two pieces. If you want to make it extra chi-chi, grab a third piece – or just tack heights on. Continue reading →

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Posted in word tasting notes

Tagged brae, Braeside, Cedarbrae, word tasting notes

Jimmy’s (McCaul Street)

Posted on February 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

Thank heavens it’s not called George’s or Donald’s

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If you like seeing the world come and go, traffic pass, and dumbass drivers at a simple intersection nearly kill bicyclists, pedestrians, and each other, and occasionally a car or truck drive straight into what your brain tells you should be the business next door but is actually an alley that continues Elm Street, grab one of the four stools at the window counter of Jimmy’s on McCaul, if you can get one. Be aware that on a bright day you may get eyestrain if you work on your computer there. Continue reading →

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Posted in Coffice Space

Tagged Coffice Space, Jimmy's, McCaul

vexeme

Posted on February 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

We all have our pet peeves. Some of us have many and some have few; some of us have bigger ones and some have smaller ones. Some people have pet peeves like leashed Rottweilers that precede them in all situations (the worst grammar grumblers can be like this), but for most of us, they are more like purse dogs, easy enough to carry around and produce as needed – almost cute, even, though they might make a mess on your wallet. For many of us, though, they’re not even pets so much as little flags we take out and wave at certain moments, kind of like sports fans. Continue reading →

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Posted in fun, word tasting notes

Tagged helen, millihelen, vexeme, word tasting notes

squeevaporate

Posted on February 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Listen to the audio of this if you prefer! I make audio versions of all my articles; they’re available for $2-a-month subscribers on Patreon. But this one is here free for everyone:

A few days ago, Julie Nathanson (@Julie_Nathanson) – who I knew back when I was at Tufts University and now follow on Twitter – tweeted, “What’s the word for finally speaking with one of your heroes for the first time and then transmogrifying into floaty, glowing vapor?” Continue reading →

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Posted in word tasting notes

Tagged squeevaporate, word tasting notes

Be an editorial Machiavelli

Posted on February 9, 2019 | 1 comment

This was originally published on the website of ACES: The society for editing

Editors need to think more like Machiavelli.

You know who Niccolò Machiavelli was, right? He’s famous for having said “The ends justify the means.”

Except he never said that. Or wrote it. Continue reading →

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Posted in editing

Tagged editing, good grammar, grammar, language rules, Machiavelli, pragmatism, rules

stronteur

Posted on February 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

There’s a certain type of person I’ve always been fascinnoyed with (you know, simultaneously fascinated and annoyed): a person who makes a point of letting you know that they don’t know about something. A kind of one-downer. A stronteur. Continue reading →

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Posted in new old words

Tagged new old words, stronteur

Henrietta Lane

Posted on February 6, 2019 | 1 comment

It does kinda look like a bar…

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This place has way more liquor bottles than the average coffice space. Continue reading →

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Posted in Coffice Space

Tagged Coffice Space, Henrietta Lane

And can it be?

Posted on February 4, 2019 | 2 comments

And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?

Those are the first words – the very first – of the well-known hymn named “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” written in 1738 by Charles Wesley, who is among the most revered hymn-writers in Protestant Christendom (the fact that he wrote some 6000 hymns might have something to do with that, I suppose).

It puts me in mind of the second chapter of the Gospel According to Luke in the King James Version. It starts “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” It goes on to tell the story of the birth of Jesus: “And she brought forth her firstborn son… And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field… And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them…” It continues for 41 sentences in 52 verses. Of those 41 sentences, 37 start with “And,” two start with “But,” one starts with “For,” and one starts with “Now” (that’s the discourse particle Now, not the temporal adverb Now: “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover”). Continue reading →

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Posted in editing

Tagged and, because, but, conjunctions, English syntax, grammar, sentences, syntax

Pronunciation tip: al dente

Posted on February 3, 2019 | 4 comments

I took over a friend’s kitchen for a moment to give a tip on how to say al dente, which surprisingly many people get wrong, generally under the influence of French. Take 56 seconds to watch and find out for yourself.