Some days we learn more than others. I am in the camp of those confusing jerry and jury in this sense but I always associated the concept of make-shift repairs with the political term 'gerrymander' named for its inventor, Mr. Gerry. This stems from the word not being one used in written form as ofte...

As a matter of fact, "unfenestrated" gets a Google rating over 600 including a few refering to walls lacking windows. I found humor in one hit for "exfenestrate" in the sense of switching a computer away from Windows.

Once again I'm missing something here. Do I read it correctly that the use of defenestrate to mean removal of windows is just a suggestion and not documented? It would seem that architects might choose to have windows in their designs and are free to call that 'fenestrate' but a lack of windows woul...

Superficial research suggests the word's 1902 use was medical applied to a psychotic disorder.

A century later is it too much to suggest it has been updated to "blogorrhea"?

When did this word first enter the language? Who used it? In what context was it first used?

Google as a verb was the American Dialect Society 2002 "most useful' new word and ran second to the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" in their word of the year vote. I suppose you can claim that the ADS is of no worth but I prefer to call them a bit slow since 'google' was the Oxfo...

I thought this was a typo but the word googles. Typo?

Is there more to the story on how fragile lost the 'n' and occupied the related but sufficiently different meaning that it received comment in the first paragraph?

While spelling is discussed, the option "bubkis" is used twice in the text but not mentioned in the discussion of spelling. Perhaps it is excessive but when I was a child and used the term with some regularity we always said "diddly-squat" rather than either of the components sep...

My weightiest Latin/English Lexicon (Andrews, 1861) says the common noun ops does not exist in the nominative singular but is found in the plural (opes) with the meanings (1) power and (2) riches. It suggests a primitive association with copia as well as opus but does not explain the connections. Th...

How is it we base opulentus (opulens) on opus=work rather than ops=wealth (there even was a goddess of wealth Ops). Where did Latin get these words?

One of the great things about the daily Good Word is how often we get words we knew previously but did not know completely. Sometimes that means learning that we did not know the word. Here, for example, I discover that I was making an incorrect distinction with 'perfidity' which semed to me to be t...

Quick searching on the word suggests many limit the term to names done for secreting the identity. Some get lucky and the result seems natural as in Oprah/Harpo.

Can anyone cite usage of the word in reference to a ward/draw type situation rather than a pseudonym?

I would have appreciated a more full explanation in 'Notes' of why "the meaning doesn't". All these words imply excess or more than usual in the same sense of the word lavish suggesting good 'poured' over something in prodigious quantity. Perhaps the problem is that there are so many ways ...

Should we note that the Polynesian tattoo is applied with a sharp needle imbedded in a piece of wood. The needle is positioned over the area to be marked and the wood is tapped with another piece of wood causing the needle to pierce the skin repeatedly. Western tattooists use electric needles but th...