In a news article today about the new US tax bill, the writer said:
In one fell swoop, the Republicans have introduced some of the largest changes…
In one fell swoop is a pretty common phrase, perhaps almost to the point of cliché. But where does it come from, and what exactly does it mean?
Yes, it’s Hallowe’en again! Time to have a look at an appropriately spooky word. But first, a challenge:
What is an Ide anyway, and why should I be scared of it? Continue reading
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
It’s that time of the year when people start thinking about their New Year’s Resolutions. For the next couple of weeks you’ll probably hear the phrase to turn over a new leaf mentioned a lot. It might strike you as a strange phrase, so where does it come from? Continue reading
A malapropism is a speech error in which a word in a phrase is accidentally replaced by one with a similar sound, usually with comic effect. The term Dogberryism is also sometimes used, after the character in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado about Nothing,” who was quite prone to making them…
Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons (Act III, Scene V)
They’re often used in fiction as a comedic device, but are quite common in real life too. Some notable examples: Continue reading
I could write a number of different posts about William Shakespeare, and I probably will end up doing so. Genius is a word that can be thrown around too easily, but I think we can safely apply it to Shakespeare. The number of words he coined, the beauty of his language, and the thematic richness of his works are incomparable to much else. But I won’t write too much about him now. What I’m interested in for the moment is when people get Shakespeare wrong. There are many of his quotations everyone is familiar with, regardless of how much they know about his work. But quite often, we misquote or misinterpret them. For example: Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 