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  • New Book: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weird Word Origins

    My book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weird Word Origins is out! This book checks out the weird and wacky histories of nearly 600 words and phrases, from A1 to zydeco . To learn more the book, see the book's home page . If you have questions or comments about the book, see The Dialogue Box ,...
    Posted to Paul McFedries' Books (Weblog) by Paul on 08-13-2008

  • There is no "I" in "internet"

    Dr. Don Franciso Salva ... at the Royal Academy of Sciences ... presented an Electrical Telegraph of his own invention. — Monthly Magazine , 1797 We have heard so much about Television lately that we are apt to forget that no portion of the apparatus used is novel to scientists. —J. Buckingham, Matter...
    Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 12-28-2007

  • The Hyphenator Strikes Again

    Today's Globe and Mail ran a story about how the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has removed some 16,000 hyphens from words such as ice cream (formerly ice-cream), water bed (water-bed), leapfrog (leap-frog), and lowlife (low-life). Hilariously, the Globe's automatic hyphenation...
    Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 09-24-2007

  • Schlimmbesserung

    Writing in today's Globe and Mail , the philosopher Mark Kingwell talked about the idea of the "bad improvement," which he says Germans refer to as Schlimmbesserung : What is a bad improvement? It is a new version of an old thing that, in pursuit of upgrade, eliminates some essential appeal...
    Posted to Lingua Techna (Weblog) by Paul on 09-15-2007

  • Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture

    Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture looks at what's happening in our world through the prism of new words and phrases, such as those found on my Word Spy Web site . For more info, see the book's home page . If you want to discuss the book or ask questions about it, head for...
    Posted to Paul McFedries' Books (Weblog) by Paul on 02-17-2004
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