Language Log: R.I.P. Fred Jelinek
Jason Eisner just forwarded to me this note from Nick Jones, the dean of the Engineering School at Johns Hopkins: It is with great sadness that I am writing to share with you the news that a member of...
View ArticleLanguage Log: The shock of seeing a new verb anniversarying
The Business Diary of a UK newspaper, The Independent (see it here) complains: Taking liberties with language Debenhams is a much-loved high-street institution, but surely it can't just reinvent the...
View ArticleLanguage Log: "Eggcorn" makes the OED
This is an auspicious moment: a Language Log-ism has been entered into the Oxford English Dictionary. The latest quarterly update for the online revision of the OED includes this note: eggcorn n. As...
View ArticleLanguage Log: ..nil nisi bonum
I can understand why Margalit Fox would want to give such prominence to Edwin Newman's two books on usage in her New York Times obituary for for the journalist, who died recently at 91. Newman retired...
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