Culture
Is It OK to Say "Gay"?
If "gay" can mean both "homosexual" and "lame," does it make us homophobic to use it for the latter? A discussion of a controversial word.
Culture
How Did Hipsters Become So Uncool?
Are you a hipster? Of course you're not. Maybe partly because no one can agree what one actually is.
Culture
The Poetry of Rhyming Compounds
Flap and zap, doom and gloom, cuff and stuff: the allure of rhyme in the workplace. Rhyme gets a bad rap, partly because of bad rap—not to...
Culture
Let's Bury the Not-a-Word Myth
Turns of phrase like "irregardless," "prolly," and "imma" can be cringeworthy, but that doesn't mean they aren't words.
Culture
The History of the "Dude"
Charting the evolution of a gender-hopping, meaning-changing, spelling-flexible word People fear, loathe, and ignore change. The term...
Culture
A Case for Banning the Word "Natural"
Ben and Jerry aren't the only ones guilty of using the vague word "natural."; Maybe because it means everything-and nothing-at the same time.
Culture
Why "OK" Is America’s Most Useful and Compact Invention
What the history of the word OK can tell us about American concision, psychology, and language.
Culture
Facebook's Aggressive Trademark Hunt
The site's trademark bullying raises questions about who owns words. Hide your face and your books! That ravenous social monster Facebook is on...
Culture
Let's Play "Name the Atheist”
Different ways of naming the godless. In the era of bestselling pro-atheist books by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins...
Culture
The Renaming of LeBron James
Cataloging the punny plays on the basketball star's name. When you call yourself King James and arrange a one-hour TV special to end your free...
Culture
Is Retweeting Plagiarism?
The evolution of citation and plagiarism via Twitter. As someone who has been teaching college writing for 12 years, I’ve seen a lot of...
Culture
Yiddish, Schmiddish!
An ode to the wonderful "schm" sound-and many other Yiddish additions to our lexicon.n
Culture
Whuck?!
A WTF-y addition to the tradition of F-word euphemisms. As fans of 30 Rock (or this column) know, Tina Fey’s awesome comedy has been a fertile...
Culture
Blatantly Pompous: Turning BP's Initials Against It
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill, people are turning to a familiar form of folk protest: messing with acronyms and initialisms. In...
Culture
Do You Speak College Slang?
Swagger Jackers and Harlot Davidsons Get the Ews! Ah, college... What memories. I was the chicken-finger-eating champion of my dorm. I...
Culture
It's a Man's Word: A Linguistic Fix for Fears of Unmanliness
From man caves to man Spanx, a word trend grows a pair.
Culture
Why Do We Hate the Word “Moist”?
The strange linguistic phenomenon of word aversion There is so much hate in the world. People hate smoking, Starbucks, American Idol, air...
Technology
Boobquake: The Big One
On the pop culture Richter scale, this went all the way up to 11. As you probably know by now, the April 26 event known as Boobquake drew more...
