What is the difference between an utterance that is macaronic and one that is code switching? I am acquainted with some people who are equally fluent in Korean, Japanese and English and in the right circumstance and switch among them at the drop of a post-position. Once in my misspent youth I visite...

The Guardian recently had a language rant on the lexical status of "irregardless" and that generated the attached 'sponce in tune form. Lexivores of the Agora will 'preciate it. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/08/to-the-distress-of-wordists-a-dictionary-has-confirmed-the-lexical-v...

Are the principal ingredients of a "Lewisburger" crab, mayonnaise, garlic, chili sauce, etc. served with asparagus, romaine lettuce, etc. on a kaiser roll?

The morpheme you are looking for is "morpheme," sometimes defined as "the most elemental grammatical units in a language" But Dr Goodword argues there are lexemes and morphemes. For his take on this see https://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling005.html (Under the general heading of GW Office) An...

In honor of Bloomsday I've been listening to the RTE dramatisation of Ulysses and reading Stuart Gilbert's guide. In his discussion of the rhetorical techniques in the Aeolus episode, Gilbert cites "Dublin's prime favorite" as an example of Pleonasm and "our old ancient ancestors" as an example of T...

I enjoyed H. W.Fowler's discussion of both pleonasm and tautology. Here is one of his examples of a tautology: "It is sheer pretense to suppose that speed and speed alone is the only thing which counts." And here on pleonasm: "Lastly, there are the pleonasms in which, by wrongly repeating a negative...

Mentor, Telemachus and Odysseus, all here just in time for the anniversary
of Bloom's Day

Dear Dr and Mrs Goodword,

I too would like to extend my congratulations and felicitations on your Diamond Anniversary. All the best!

For an etymology (but not a definition) look here https://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/word/faggot For a definition and an etymology, Merriam-Webster supplies Definition of fascism 1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation...

Philip, I couldn't find charabanc in the Good Word Dictionary so I looked it up using the link to many online dictionaries. I found this one from the American Heritage Dictionary. n. Chiefly British A bus typically used for sightseeing, originally open and pulled by horses. [From French char à bancs...

"Able was I ere I saw Elba" The earliest appearance of this palindrome that I could find in print was 1848 when it was credited to one J. T. R. in The Gazette of the Union, Golden Rule, and Odd Fellows' Family Companion. The same source also mentions the following near palindromes Lewd did I live & ...

I'm envious of people who can dream up palindromes. I can only find a few words that spell another when written backwards. However, you might find the following kid's joke in Japanese interesting. It works like this: Kid A says "Say 'tebukuro' backwards" ('tebukuro' is the Japanese word for 'glove.'...

Dr Goodword, thanks for this. I enjoyed the tale about the domestication of animals by humans.

The Etymonline Dictionary for "Gull 1, 2 and V" is gull (n.1) shore bird, early 15c. (in a cook book), probably from Brythonic Celtic; compare Welsh gwylan "gull," Cornish guilan, Breton goelann; all from Old Celtic *voilenno-. Replaced Old English mæw (see mew (n.1)). gull (n.2) cant term for "dupe...

Mr Myer, I rather agree with you. It is possible to address the underlying issue without such strained language. Your example could have been written "Children who are well will not starve themselves." We can refer to an individual by name or title or role. "John said this" "The previous speaker sai...