Are we tired of long words yet?
It’s August. Does anyone have any idea how that happened? Just wanted to drop a quick post today with a few more interesting long words: Unimaginatively has a lot of vowels—eight in total, if you count the final y. Which of course you SHOULD. Seeing as it’s...
The Long and the Short of it – Part 3
We’ve talked about ridiculously long words, and vaguely more recognizable long words. Today’s words aren’t very long, but they are the longest of their kinds. Can I buy a vowel, Pat? Euouae is only six letters long, but every single letter is a vowel. If you're...
The Long and the Short of It – Part 2
Let’s continue our little foray into long words, shall we? We covered some extremely long words last time, but they were weird. Now we come to some that are more recognizable, but still rack up the letters. Antidisestablishmentarianism (twenty-eight letters)...
The Long and the Short of It – Part 1
I thought I’d start a little summer series on the longest words in English. But then I realized the longest words are all scientific and boring. (No offense to you scientists who use the chemical name for the titin portion that takes FIFTY-SEVEN PAGES to write. It...
Olde words to revive
I have a little verbal gift for you today from ye olde days of yore. Meg Cowley brought to my attention a fabulous list of old words that we need to revive. The list is awesome, but since I’m having a hard time finding a source for it, I’m just going to tell you a...
American English vs. British English
Did you know… …that before the American Revolution, both America and Britain spoke like the Americans do today? I am not kidding about this. All these period movies where everyone speaks exactly like the British today are wrong! Scandalous, I know. Turn out “(i)t is...
Too many books is a good thing.
Have you made New Year's Resolutions for how to get through that ridiculously long To Be Read list? Because mine will take me the next hundred years to get through. If I did nothing else. But you guys, I have excellent news. And I know you're going to be excited about...
Correspondence With My Whisk
I stumbled across a fantastic word this week: resistentialism (n.) humorous theory to describe seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects. I love this word. Because I’m convinced that inanimate objects are, well, animate. About a year and a...
The beauty of reading fiction
Last time I shared with you guys some studies that talked about why reading fiction is so good at developing empathy and overall becoming better human beings, and as usual you guys sent the best responses. Here are two extra things you brilliant people pointed out: It...
Fiction vs. Non-fiction
There’s a general idea in the world that reading is good for you. Pretty much everyone agrees it’s good for kids to learn to read, that time kids spend reading is time well-spent. And for adults, it's the same. Reading a book generally ranks higher on the Good...