The Word Columnists
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RECENT COLUMNS
The un-welcome
There’s a certain kind of person - you may even be this kind of person - whose good will after receiving a favor and replying with “thank you” is completely wiped out when the response is not the traditional “you’re welcome,” but instead the breezier “no problem.” (Boston Globe, 10:41 a.m.)
The Word: When to ‘whoomp’
WHO WOULD HAVE thought, with the old media giants keeling over like Disney’s overheated dinosaurs, that a journalistic inside joke would become the talk of the twitterverse? But so it is. A month after the Fake AP Stylebook began tweeting parody usage and style tips - “ ‘Teaspoon’ and ‘tablespoon’ measure volume. ‘Coffee spoon’ measures life” - it has thousands ... (Boston Globe, 11/20/09)
A few alternatives to our most popular obscenity
Oxford University Press has just published the third edition of “The F-Word” - 270 pages investigating every possible combination, situation, and divagation in which the most notorious expletive in English can be found. For a word that can’t be printed in most newspapers, it’s certainly leading a rich, full life. (Boston Globe, 11/13/09)
The Word: Can you relate?
“RELATABLE - WHAT IS that?” demanded the subject line of Christina Thompson’s e-mail. The message itself took a calmer tone. Thompson, who edits the Harvard Review and teaches writing and editing, has been hearing the word more and more often, she said, to describe “something one can relate to, as in ‘it’s a very relatable book.’ (Boston Globe, 11/6/09)
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