...we would not like to speculate that Greek borrowed the root from Hebrew, which belongs to an entirely different language family, Semitic. It wouldn't be idle speculation -- Greek "borrowed" the names for its letters ( alpha , beta , gamma , etc.) from Hebrew ( aleph , beth , gimel , et...

Thanks, Slava. Sometimes I get so zealous in cleaning out my email account that I delete things I haven't read yet.

While I'm resurrecting old threads, I wonder if anyone here saw Synecdoche, New York, a movie about synecdoche and Schenectady?

(resurrecting old threads = way to save money! )

A term sometimes used for the closely related concept metonymy, as explained by the inimitable Michael Quinion....

Henri

I know this is a REALLY old thread, but I couldn't resist: inimitable metonymy? Say that three times fast!

[quote="Dr. Goodword] In Play: A major disappointment might qualify: "Lucky Fisher was distraught to discover that the only thing in his net was a [/quote] Was the good Doctor distracted while preparing this entry? We don't know what was in Lucky Fisher's net that had him so distraught! :l...

I read this back in April but just noticed: "uniform inert-ness," not "inert-ia"?

A recent comic strip (One Big Happy) had one of the kid characters defining dyspepsia as the condition of one who can only read soda can labels backwards.

In Play: It is difficult to use today’s Good Word without the adverb down: “If you aren’t wearing a helmet, I would suggest you scrooch down when we go down to the cellar...” Which means that somewhere, probably right where people are apt to use this word, someone is saying "scrooch up" t...

I've heard that figure of speech " of the xxx persuasion " many times over the years (including " of the Colored Persuasion "), but your example has the advantage of rhyming. Besides the other example, I've only heard "Asian persuasion," and that only from Asian comics...

Yeah, I forgot which comedian I stole that from long ago, but as they say, "Si le foo chie, portez-le."

C'est what?

What always used to make me chuckle was hearing a person being described as "of the Caucasian persuasion." Was somewhat common among black teens when I was growing up. I always wondered, who persuaded him?

I first came across this word while reading Captain Newman, MD some years ago, as part of the construction "flak juice" (sodium pentothal), used in the treatment of shellshocked soldiers -- I say shellshocked because this was used immediately after whatever incident triggered the shock (an...

Actually, it seems to me that anamnesis could apply on a much smaller scale than memoirs, like a shopping list, or that string on your finger that you stare at because you've forgotten what it was supposed to remind you of ...

So if the secretary (*ahem*) executive assistant of a certain ancient Greek king had written her memoirs, it would have been the anamnesis of Agamemnon's amanuensis... *ducking rotten tomatoes*

A couple of years ago I heard a radio DJ using this word while reporting on an incident in the West Indies regarding government corruption. Something about an airline getting preferential treatment in some countries and whether there was money changing hands. He used the word so often it was taking ...