How to alternate the alternative: word usage
In practice, the rule is simple enough to remember: if you’re talking about switching back and forth, use “alternate.” If you’re talking about choosing between options, use “alternative.
Cat in the bag rewrites idiom: usage and origin
What keeps the idiom current is its imagery. Unlike more clinical alternatives – “disclose,” “reveal,” “divulge” – this one has texture. It moves. It scratches. It refuses containment. And perhaps that’s why it endures: because secrets, like cats, are never entirely obedient.
I was just six years old: The die was cast: idiom origin and usage
Today, we use the idiom for any moment of irreversible action. You resign from a stable job to start your own business. You press “send” on an email that might change everything. You sign the contract, make the announcement, book the one-way ticket, say "I do". The die is cast.
Ferment and foment confuse the best of us: word usage
Foment means "to incite or rouse." The words have some overlap in use, as they can both be used to express agitation and situations that can cause change or unrest.’
Now you can have your cake and eat it too: Idioms are a piece of cake
In recent months I ‘ve heard many sitcoms and dramedies use the phrase cakewalk. As someone who is familiar with the term ‘piece of cake’ I wondered how the word…
The scary truth about “Would They Love A Lion?”
I am seldom stirred by stories, be they children’s, Essop’s or fireside tales. But yesterday I was more than a little disturbed while reading a book with the title, “Would…
Half-nelson: origin of words
Horatio Nelson was first to be ascribed naming rights, himself a contender in war. He found this strategic use of the movement effective in the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Trafalgar both of which he won.
If music be the food of love
Gotta love Shakespeare: origin of idioms
An idiom as colour to language. If music be the food of love was coined by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Here we discuss usage
Zeitgeist: origin of words
“The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; For example, the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it.”
Avoid traffic lights but use breaks to prevent a crash
Grammar: Prevent or avoid
For instance, I can say, to avoid the morning rush hour traffic, I usually leave my house an hour early. In this context, prevent is a misfit. However, if I say “to prevent heat stroke on hot summer days, drink plenty of water and stay out of the sun”.
