Available Now!
Dances with Words
Playing live in San Diego
July 22-24
(Click here)
Richard’s latest book
American History for Everyone
(click here)
Richard’s revealing interview
in the San Diego Union-Tribune,
Nov 2nd
(click here)
Live Speaking Events

“Someone should declare Richard Lederer a national treasure” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“America’s Wittiest Verbalist” — Book of the Month Club
“The true King of Language Comedy” — Sidney Sheldon
“America’s Top Pun” — Chicago Tribune
“Columnist Extraordinaire” — The New Yorker
“Lederer beguiles and bedazzles” — Los Angeles Times
Richard's Latest Column
Read “Lederer on Language” every other Saturday in the San Diego Union Tribune and right here
The true scuttlebutt about our nautical English language
Let’s go sailing, sailing over the bounding main. A mainstay is a strong rope that helps stabilize a ship’s main mast, but for most of us mainstay means “the most important part of something; someone or something that provides primary support,” as in “The Union-Triune is a mainstay of our San Diego community.” In the same fleet as mainstay sails flagship, a ship that carries the commander’s flag and has come to mean “the best and most important of a group.” For old salts and ancient mariners, by and large was a command that meant “to sail slightly off the wind,” in contrast to full and by, “keeping the sails full of all the wind possible.” When we say by

Come through the entrance of my website. I guarantee it will entrance you.
Find my upcoming live performances—learning dressed up to have fun.
Acquire my books, which I sign and, if so desired, inscribe.
Access my “Lederer on Language” columns, which go way back.
And if you send me a message, I promise to respond.