and expedient is a back formation also?

mark has-no-idea Bailey

Not sure about that, but "expediate" is, I think.

-- PW

To send out or issue officially(as a document etc,etc). Sounds like another backformation from expedite , which is a backformation in its own right from expedition . Per the OEtD: Expedite 1471, from L. expeditus, pp. of expedire "make fit or ready, prepare," lit. "free the feet from...

This is becoming too infecktious.

-- PW

I don't know that people really don't believe they happened

Read this disgusting nonsense and weep.

-- PW

According to my late father and aged mother, there was nothing great about it. I think it kind of ticked my parents off, too. Of course, they had World War II to look forward to, though I know my mother found the Blitz and the buzbombs to be something of an inconvenience. Lucky Dad was in Burma, ha...

It is definitely authored by Flanders and Swan, although others have covered it. As for have zeugmas, m'dear..well not quite. "Have some Madeira M'Dear" — a song about seduction, full of complex word-play, including three oft-quoted examples of syllepsis . Syllepsis is somewhat related to...

As Stalin put it: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." And he knew of what he spoke.

-- PW

Although a certain Flanders and Swan character would have taken issue with that. :D Yike, British Music Hall! What next? my favourite rhyme here: And Port is a wine I can well do without; It's simply a case of Chacun a son GOUT! Music Hall? I'm not sure F&S quite fall into that musical genre. R...

I had no idea (a shock, I know) that this came from the Hindi language. I would assume (perhaps falsely) that is rare.
Any other examples of words derived from that source?

Here are some, skinem.

-- PW

All of which brings to mind one of the great ad lines of all time:

"A port in every girl."


-- PW

A great word and a great, classic literary form. It's often confused with the peripatetic form, in which our hero (or anti-hero) wanders about or is engaged in some journey of realization or fulfillment. A road story (or road movie) if you will. Many modern novels (and movies) are based on the road ...

Always on the cutting edge of all things environmental, California is encouraging public and private-sector employees to bring worms to work so that the creatures can chew up apple cores, sandwich scraps and other lunch leftovers and produce compost. I think that's probably the goofiest darned thin...

The oldest form of this word that we can reconstruct is the speculative *koi-/kei- "to lie, bed", also seen in Greek koiman "put to sleep". This stem died out in Modern English Interesting that there's a common Swedish slang word "koj" meaning "bed". Related ...

Ah, the Good Old Days. When you had to "see the USA in your Chevrolet". When Dad did all the driving, griping the entire time. When the car windows remained tightly closed and Dad almost kippered the entire family with his Lucky Strikes. When the World's Largest Ball of Twine could mean at...

Forget the skis. These days, it's 'boarding that rules. Unfortunately, we all have to learn a new vocabulary, even to keep up as couch-potato spectators. I submit a sample extract from an authentic report: "Fueled by youthful energy, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins kept the hammer down throughout the comp....