We’ve printed a lot of words about words in this column of the last 12 months. These were some of my favorites, and I hope some of yours.
Taking Apart the Parts of Speech
Writing words about the words we use to categorize the words we use is like a delicious multi-layer cake for a logophile like me. We were all taught the names of the parts of speech back in grade school, but few of us were told where those names came from. In “Taking Apart the Parts of Speech,” from May 25, I briefly outline how well-meaning academics forced English grammar through a Latin-shaped hole, what came out the other side, and how it led to some of the snootiest snooting among prescriptivist grammarians.
The Slowest Sleuth
Researching the word sleuth was fun for me because I didn’t realize, going in, that I would end up at sloth, sort of. Find out how Sherlock Holmes and the three-toed sloth aren’t related in “The Slowest Sleuth,” from August 31.
What’s So Casual about Casualties?
On September 14, I scratched an itch that had been irritating me for ages. When I started researching “What’s So Casual about Casualties?” I expected to discover that the similarities between causal and casualty were just some weird coincidence. What I found was even more interesting.
Black Record, White Album
I knew from words like albino, albumen, and even Albus Dumbledore that alb- words usually indicate something white, but it wasn’t until this November that I consciously recognized that the word album is an alb- word too. So I did a little digging, and on November 30, in “Black Record, White Album,” I showed how we got from a Latin word for “white” to the Beatles’ self-titled album.
Sending Out an SOS
Most of the time, this column takes us back into Greek and Latin and Old English, but on February 2, all that was put aside for some straight-up history to answer a question we’ve all asked at some point in our lives: What does SOS stand for? Short version: It doesn’t stand for anything except for what it is. After the Titanic had its misfortunate brush with an iceberg, the ship’s telegraph operator sent out the message “SOS,” but it wasn’t his first choice. Find out what was in “Sending Out an SOS.”
The Proof of Liquor
Many of the ideas for this column come from friends, family, co-workers, and the occasional hairdresser just stopping to ask “why’s it called that?” That and the age-old question “why is a liquor’s proof exactly twice its alcohol content?” were the answers I sought when I wrote “The Proof of Liquor” on March 16. What I found, in part, was that we should be thankful that the conversion is so simple; a little over 200 years ago, 100-proof liquor was 57.06 percent pure alcohol. Try doing that math in your head.
Fiddle vs. Violin
Music plays an oversized part in my life. Occasionally, when conversations among friends turn toward musical styles, someone will ask “what’s the difference between a fiddle and a violin?” and then turn to me expecting an easy answer. I won’t wade into the differences in style and playing technique — that misstep is a great way to start an argument with an actual string player — but I will look at the differences in the words. And as I wrote in “Fiddle vs. Violin” on January 26, the differences aren’t so great. In fact, both words come from the same etymological source.
More Bang for Your Buxom
I’m not sure what it says about people on the internet, but my story from June 29 about the origins of buxom was by far my most popular word history of the year. In fact, “More Bang for Your Buxom” is the only In a Word column to make it onto the list of “The Most Popular Articles of 2023.” It does have an interesting and unexpected history, but it isn’t nearly as risqué as some readers may have hoped.
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