Author Archives: Verla Viera

Today’s entry comes via The Professor. Pearls is her favorite comic.

This is my second installment in the series of words that I can never seem to remember the meanings of, no matter how many times I encounter them. Repetition is supposed to be a major key to learning. Then why … Continue reading →

One of the volumes in my growing collection of books on words, grammar, and language is Dictionary of Word Origins: A History of the Words, Expressions, and Clichés We Use, by Jordan Almond. It’s a bit of an odd work. … Continue reading →

In a recent post, I discussed how “unfriend” had returned to common use, thanks to Facebook. As I thought about that, I came upon the word “frenemy,” a great example of a portmanteau word. Lewis Carroll coined that term; linguists … Continue reading →

A spoonerism is a phrase generated by the (usually unintentional) transposition of sounds between words. While this type of speech error has undoubtedly been occurring for much longer than a century, our word for them came from William A. Spooner … Continue reading →