In the last post I was asked where “drop the hammer” comes from. Turns out, there wasn’t an easy answer floating around already — it took serious digging. Dunno why I was digging for a floating answer, but that’s how these things work out sometimes. Below, I’ve set up the “drop the hammer” hits from […]
Does “drop the hammer” come from guns? Carlos *** Dear Carlos, Yes and no. Or rather, sometimes. I started out thinking this would be a breezy etymological jaunt, but nope – ended up in corpus research. Which is cool, since I’ve done plenty of etymology lately. I’m going to go through my steps and missteps, […]
Dear Language Nerd, What’s the word for when you mishear something and make up a new word for it? Acorn something? Delphine *** Dear Delphine, You’re looking for eggcorn, which is itself an eggcorn of “acorn.”* An eggcorn is a reinterpretation of a word or phrase. Something with an obscure meaning is changed to something […]
Dear Art Nerd, Why do artists feel like art doesn’t need to be pretty anymore? Colleen N. *** Okay, what the hell kind of artist told you that? If I felt like my art didn’t need to be pretty anymore, I would have stopped trying to improve myself a long time ago! But I’m gonna assume that what you mean is […]
i want to learn japanese but i cant understand the alphabet :((( *** Dear Anonymous Would-be Otaku, First the good news: no need to beat yourself up for not getting the Japanese alphabet – there ain’t one! So no worries there. Now the less-god news: there are two syllabaries and a whole slew of logograms […]
Hey, Language Nerd. I’m editing something and I need some help. How would I explain why we don’t say things like “going to eating” without leaving room for other mistakes like “let me to paint”? -Rhone *** Dear Rhone, It’s tough. First we need to get into our complements. A finite complement specifies a time: […]
Dear Language Nerd, I know a bunch of people with the last names Blue, Brown, or White, but outside of Reservoir Dogs I never heard of a Mr. Pink or Mr. Orange. Why are some colors normal names and others not? -Freddy Fuchsia (I wish) *** Dear Rainbow Authority, To really explain this, I gotta […]
Dear Language Nerd, So here’s my crossword puzzle clue: “Address letters.” And I’m racking my brain – issue invitations? Write out? Inscribe? Engrave? Calligraphize? And then (much later) I realize. “Address” is a NOUN, not a verb, and the answer is the 2-letter state code. Tell me with linguistics the mechanisms of this trickery, o […]
Hey Lang Nerd, can I axe you a question? Why do some people say “aks” and not “ask”? Kenneth *** Dear Kenneth, Metathesis, man. Metathesis. This is the term for when two sounds switch places in a word. It is therefore required, by custom and maybe law, that anyone explaining metathesis refer to it as […]
Dear Language Nerd, Not to brag or anything, but I have totally mastered writing in English. I don’t mean the nuances of grammar or the subtlety of poetry or any of that pishposh. I mean the physical act of writing. I put down the letters, others decode the sounds, and frankly it’s beautiful. Grown men […]