As it’s been a while since I did a post like this, and lately I’ve been thinking about some interesting names, I decided that once more I wanted to look at the meaning and origins of some common English-language names. So then…
… what’s in a name?
What’s the difference between a dash and a hyphen? For most people the difference is immaterial—aren’t they just they just different words for this little thing— -?
Well, not quite. For most people the difference isn’t really important, but if you spend a reasonable amount of time writing, the differences are important.
Yeah, you.
It’s a strange word, you, when you think about it for too long.
You.
It’s the only personal pronoun to be both a subject pronoun and an object pronoun. You can say You talked to him and He talked to you, but never Him talked to you and You talked to he.
It’s also used as both a singular and plural pronoun, in standard English at least. Because it’s sometimes confusing when someone says you and we don’t know if they’re talking to us alone or to as part of a group, colloquial plural forms of you do exist around the world.
Marathon!
A fine word. Most of us know it as a noun, referring to a run of 26 miles, or 42.195 kilometres. It can also be an adverb of course, indicating that something took an exceptionally long time, as would be the case for most of us running a marathon. Politicians might have a marathon session in parliament to discuss a controversial proposed law. One could also use the noun in this way as well; for example: Continue reading
Just a short post today, as it’s Sunday and I fancy a rest, but I think I’ll complement it with a reblog of one of my earlier posts.
I’m always amazed at the number of different countries you all hail from. I love looking at that little map on the stats page, and am proud and humbled to have had visitors from every continent. Yesterday I had my first visitor from Montenegro, or at least someone in Montenegro at the time (thank you, whoever you are!). In many ways, Montenegro is similar to Luxembourg: a small country with a complex history and an interesting name… Continue reading
I’ve been deeply honoured to have been given this tag by grevisangel73. I highly recommend her blog for some great poetic adventures. And thank you also to ayunda at teanandpaperbacks.com for creating the tag.
The Questions: Continue reading
Triskaidekaphobia
Paraskevidekatriaphobia
If you suffer from either of these phobias, you might want to keep a low profile today, and be extra cautious in everything you do. Avoid walking under ladders, and give any black cats a wide berth, because today of course, is Friday the 13th! The two phobias above are, respectively, a fear of the number 13, and a fear of Friday the 13th specifically. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 