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Title of Grammarphobia: "Grammarphobia: Grammar, etymology, linguistics, usage"
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Q: Over the last decade I’ve been seeing an uptick in the use of “drop” to mean something new being released, like a podcast episode or music album. Where does this come from?
A: Something must be in the air. Two people have asked us this same question within a week.
The use of “drop” ...
Q: How can we get everyone to quit using “loose” when they mean “lose”? It’s driving me insane!
A: The word “lose” is usually a verb with the sense of failing to win or hold on to something, while “loose” is usually an adjective meaning not securely attached, or less commonly a verb meaning to release or set free.
...Q: How was the definite article that we now see in the faux-archaic names of ye olde shoppes actually pronounced in Old English and Middle English when it was written with a thorn?
A: The article “the” was originally spelled se in Old English and pronounced like a clipped version of “say” without the glide at...
Q: In a NY Times obituary, a historian refers to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “arrogant, literate, obdurate, revengeful,” etc. Is it not odd to describe an Islamic scholar as “literate,” i.e., merely able to read and write?
A: The word “literate” meant educated or learned when it first appeared in English in the 14th cen...