Given the definition and the root word definitions, I'd say hypocorisms should be affectionate or endearing. Caressing is not usually considered hostile.

What's a cobber anyway?

Odor does seem almost exclusively to mean something unpleasant, with aroma serving in the pleasant scents.

I have no tea to spill, so I'll just refer the curious to the Good Doctor's Agora treatment of Sibling.

Question for any British readers out there, though: do you still use gossip as in the 3rd definition?

For further reading on eponym, see these two treatments here on the Agora.

An interesting bit on how different sounds come to mean different things in different languages; minari in Korean means water celery (according to Wikipedia). It's the title of a 2020 movie.

Pardon the effusiveness, but how can I refuse to share my enjoyment of finding out that gut and geyser share a root? It would prove futile not to attempt to funnel the profusion of pleasure I derived from this small ingot of linguistic alchemy.

The framing of an issue around just a few words most people can easily remember and relate to is very important. That's why Global Warming is now more often referred to as Climate Change. Get a cold day in Summer, there's no warming, but you can still call it change!

A most topical word here in the US of A these days. Should politicians be superannuated, and if so, at what age? I don't recall seeing it used in any commentary, though. Silly writers need to subscribe to the Good Word, eh?

Apparently not, as per this ancient post of 2007.

Which gives us a neat tie-in to precocious.

I can easily understand the confusion with blanch, as when blenching in fear one may well go pale as well.

Mr. Putin continues his lack of blenching, most recently a bit earlier this year.

Speaking of the corona, my city will get to see one in just a few short weeks. Here's what my local stamp club did in honor of the last one in 2017, which we didn't get to see. The neat things about the stamp is the ink of the moon is thermo-reactive. When warmed, it fades away to show the surface o...

Appropriately, I guess, adjunct professors are the ones who get yoked with all the teaching tasks the full professors don't want.

The Good Word of 3/10/2024: • nauseous • Pronunciation: naw -zee-ês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Causing an urge to vomit, nauseating. (Most dictionaries would also include "nauseated" as a definition, but see our Notes.) Notes: Choosing among the various adjectives derive...

Nay, it's just there's a 5 coming up, so I thought to spread them out a tad.

As a real-life exemplar of a vacuity, we might find no one more fitting than former US Vice-President J. Danforth Quayle. My my, how he was panned back in the day. Of course, a few years after he was gone we got his president's son to pick on, too. Politicians make good targets.