It’s a pretty straightforward answer actually: one of those cases where when you see the steps between A and F, it makes sense.
Why is “Dick” Short for “Richard?”
reading
Venomous or Poisonous?
Poisonous, definitely poisonous. That is, I’d much rather encounter a poisonous animal than a venomous one. Why? Let me explain…
#Trending
I think I became aware of the word trending a few years ago, whenever it began to creep outside of Twitter, as I’ve only recently started to dip my toes in the water of the Twittersphere. My first thought was that the word seemed to mean popular, but that there must be some more specific meaning to it. In time, I told myself, that meaning would become clear.
The Etymology of Instagram
While writing about social media yesterday, a thought occurred: what’s the etymology of the name Instagram? The Insta- part seemed pretty obvious, but I was curious about the –gram part. Luckily, when you want to find out about the etymology of the names of social media, you don’t have to do too much digging…
“You Ain’t S**t!”
I had a strange experience recently on, I believe, Facebook. It might have been Twitter, but I think it was Facebook. Having a cursory pass through my newsfeed, something caught my eye. It was a headline for a fairly typical slightly clickbaity article. It featured a young woman, presumably a model or actress, standing next to a billboard on which she featured. The headline was a quote from her, something like this:
“None of them is” or “None of them are?”
Which of the following is correct:
It’s ok! None of the coffee is on my shirt!
I called the guys, and none of them is coming.
I called the guys, and none of them are coming.
(Oh man, usually when he asks Which one is correct? they’re all correct and he expects us to amazed. Watch)
Well, you might actually be amazed to find out that they’re all correct!
(*sigh* See?)
But why are they all correct?
My Ideas
How about a short light post today, after getting heavy yesterday (I mean, Nazis, after all)? A few weeks ago, I wrote about a typical example of how ideas come to me, and make their way onto your screen. Usually ideas come to me like that, just based on my everyday encounters with language. When I start a post with something like The other day I was listening to the radio and I noticed how the presenter pronounced the word haberdashery, it’s usually true, and not some awkward way to introduce the topic. And sometimes I’ll start with something like The other day I was wondering about the etymology of the word hamster… because that’s the kind of thing I do when my mind has a moment to wander.
English-Language Thoughts 