Springfield is a particularly common toponym in the English language, especially in the United States. Continue reading
word origins
No One Will Believe This of Vast Import to the Nation
This line, the final one of William Carlos William’s poem “Pastoral,” has always been fixed in mind.
It’s an effective and arresting line, poetically speaking, which is the main reason. But it was also the first time I’d seen the word import used in that way. Continue reading
The Horn of Plenty
Lots of animals have horns. Cows have horns. Rhinoceroses, goats, antelopes, all have horns.
Buildings though, generally don’t have horns. Continue reading
Mocking
It’s strange that we live in a world in which I can write that the President of the United States mocked an alleged sexual-assault victim, and that’s not a lie. Continue reading
Indifferent
I came across this word while reading today, and I noticed that it’s a little unusual. We usually think of in- as a negative prefix, making a word the opposite of the word that follows the prefix. But indifferent isn’t the opposite of different.
Or is it? Continue reading
Of Sound Body and Mind
Did you ever wonder why we use the word sound with this meaning?
No? Well luckily for you, I have! Continue reading
Straightforward
While writing yesterday, I paused to think of le mot juste, and it turned out that straightforward was juste the mot I needed. I paused again, then, to think a little more about that word, straightforward.
It’s quite a straightforward word, isn’t it? Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 