As 2014 puts on his hat and overcoat and prepares to trudge off down the foggy lane to Lethe, it is usual for a blog like this to list its ...

Just a link today to this list of slang terms of the 1920s . I rather liked the exclamation "Banana oil" to mean "that's...

Just to say, that for any of you still struggling with what to buy for Christmas, there is a box set of The Etymologicon, The Horologicon ...

I am, occasionally, accused of making everything I write up as I go along. Usually I weep; but I am now in the happy position of being able...

 Note the arches I'm terribly distressed to find that the above pun doesn't quite work. Arcadia - the Greek realm of shepherds...

I was reading the excellent Twelve Curious Deaths in France by John Goldsmith , when I found that one of the characters was described as h...

Just a link today to this article that I wrote for the New York Times on the rhetoric of advertising slogans. Be all you can be. To be ...