English idioms: how they get distorted
The other day, a friend asked, “How do you spell towing the line as in the sense of complying? Is it toing or towing? This is just one of many…
Africa's future leaders
Five word pairs to increase your word power
Today I’d like to share these word pairs that always confuse new writers. Not to sound arrogant there are plenty words in the English language that I need to check…
A screenshot of Boston Legal
A deadly blutterance: How words are formed
Blasted, blithering and blooming. All lovely descriptive words with a possible to probable note of irritation in how they are expressed, depending on context of course. These words remind me…
Theft and larceny: correct usage
With so much exposure to people’s dirty legal laundry and equal amounts of televised fictional dramas – Law and Order my personal favourite – I often heard the charge of…
How words are formed
The English language owes much to many. From the outset it borrowed from Germanic, French, Latin and Dutch influences, to name just a few. Overtime the language has seen words…
The incidence of incidents
There’s not much to say about incidence and incident except that temptation (also read auto brain) to misuse the two words is quite common. It’s one of those cases in…
Church bells
Tintinnabulation: Origin of words and #belltolls4JZ
Tintinnabulation. This delightful six-syllable tongue-twister made its debut in 1831 according to some sources, even earlier according to others. Online Etymology Dictionary states its origin in usage as "the ringing…
Take out the rubbish: When nouns become verbs
I am the first to admit, I am not always original but I do try to be topical and even then, perhaps decades out of touch. Bear with me. The…
Diving in to the truth about ‘dove’
To me the word ‘dove’ brings to mind the soap brand and the birds referred to in one of Prince’s better known songs, When Doves Cry. So I was a…
Fewer words, but less data: Know the difference between fewer and less
English is a complex language and there is often confusion between words that seemingly have the same meaning but are particular in their usage. Such is the case with the…