Read “Lederer on Language” every other Saturday in the San Diego Union Tribune and on this site
This coming Monday we celebrate Presidents’ Day, which honors the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both born in February. On Presidents’ Day we
Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th president, entered the earthly stage as Hiram Ulysses Grant. When his name was mistakenly entered on the West Point register
One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. The
Calendars were first made so that people could predict recurring events, such as planting and harvest times. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar ordered that the
The great English etymologist Owen Barfield once wrote, “Words may be made to disgorge the past that is bottled up inside of them, as coal
Carnivores eat meat. Herbivores consume plants. Verbivores devour words. I am such a creature. My whole life I have feasted on words — ogled their
Centuries ago, the Pilgrims found in America a wild fowl somewhat similar in appearance to a guinea fowl they had known back in England —
DEAR RICHARD: The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the comma used before the conjunction in a list of three or more
’Twas Halloween Night (Thanks to Clement Clark Moore, who wrote “The Night Before Christmas.”) ’Twas Halloween night, and all through the house, All the creatures
Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels over head (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.
