Reviewing this ancient text, I note that no one juxtaposed thea with theater, which obviously relates to viewing more than to God or gods, though deus ex machina was popular in some ancient plays as well as in todays pyrotechnics.

Whether to convert nouns to verbs is a long running argument. I remember first bumping into it in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. Wolfe has strong opinions about words. One that stands out is his repeated stance of abhoring the use of "contact" as a verb. Today, it's almost essential, as th...

I'm pretty sure "lead" as the introductory sentence for a news article comes from the idea of a leading sentence as the one that opens the first paragraph (aka "graph"). In coversation it can be expanded the opening paragraph or two as in "How do you propose to lead into the...

Surnames mostly evolved logically: John's son to Johnson, and Joe the blacksmith to Joe Smith. But whence come the last names that are also colors? White, Black, Green, Redd, Brown, an d any others that may come to mind? Anyone do research on these?

Man on the street...
Flyover country (outside the DC Beltway, Midwest)
John Doe

When did the opening sentence in a straight news article change from lead to lede, as in burying the lede?

I think it's not gimcrack corn, but Jim or Jimmy, or possibly Jimmie. The next line is "My Johnny's gone away." It's almost a nonsense rhyme with a catchy tune. I always heard it "Jimmy," probably to balance "and I." To word it "Jim" ignores the "and"...

Thanks, Doc. Clears up a lot.

Yet I understand that "s'mores" are among the most popular Girl Scout cookies...

Donded is a new one for me. I mostly read "seconded," but don't hear it...

Probably an in-law by marriage...

I'm too timid to be temulent...

Following the prez's use ofthe word...

I at one point majored in speech at college. Both there and in high school speech classes, we were taught to develop the "midwestern" accent, which supposedly was neutral. The "southern" accent is very real, but no southerner I know thinks tv and movies get it right.

I have also seen the term applied as a noun in several contexts referring to an elaborate instrument display, as in an airliner cockpit. I believe I've also seen it in places like steam control or even nuclear control rooms. And doesn't it also show up in the space program?