Tag Archives: slang

In defense of y’all

Posted on May 9, 2013 by

I mentioned on twitter yesterday (find me at @GrammarParty for tweets about grammar and cats and nerd stuff) that I’m going to start saying y’all more often. And I got some good-natured ribbing about it. “It’s my heritage,” I cried … Continue reading →

Posted in grammar, story time | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Okay! OK! O.K.! Ok?

Posted on January 29, 2013 by

You are, no doubt, familiar with OK. These two strung-together letters have made one of the world’s most commonly used words. Today we’re going to learn the origin of this universal term for all right, sure, and fine and which … Continue reading →

Posted in copy editing, etymology, style issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Teetotaler

Posted on January 3, 2013 by

“Veteran drudge” of The Baltimore Sun newspaper, John E. McIntyre, recently blogged a list of slang words for being drunk: schnockered shellacked snozzled soused Lots of S words, apparently. But what about slang for the opposite end of the imbibing spectrum? … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Malarkey!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by

During last week’s vice presidential debate, Joe Biden dropped some old man slang on the world when he called fellow candidate Paul Ryan’s response malarkey. In case you don’t know, here’s how Merriam-Webster defines malarkey: “insincere or foolish talk.” Examples … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, grammar, in the news | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Foreign color idioms

Posted on January 5, 2012 by

  Last time we talked about the ways colors have infused themselves into the English language. Naturally, this happens with other languages, too. But often there’s a little tweak. For instance, in English one could get a black eye, but … Continue reading →

Posted in foreign language | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments