Word Du Jour

Ellenym (part two)

Tom Joad — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:50:22 +0000

As promised, the second part of things ending in ‘nym’. I have to admit, I didn’t know quite how many nyms were out there when I started this affair. Imagine my surprise when I found not just a few, but scores of the things. I’m not going to go on and on about them, as [...]

Ellenym (part one)

Tom Joad — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:42:24 +0000

Hey! that’s not a word. Nope, it’s not. But as this piece is about compound Greek words giving names to things that, er, name things, I thought I’d invent it. Ellenic – Greek for, well, ‘Greek’ and a corruption of onoma, Greek for ‘name’. This is how most of these kind of words get their name, [...]

Bluetooth

Tom Joad — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:51:39 +0000

This is something I kind-of knew already but I thought it might serve as a bit of light weekend reading for both my loyal readers. It’s going to be fairly short and sweet but this way I can keep the site going with a little more momentum and conviction than I have recently. Bluetooth may [...]

Unce

Tom Joad — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:56:20 +0000

Reports of this site’s death appear to have been greatly exaggerated. I can understand your thinking that as I hadn’t updated in many, many months it might be defunct. I can assure you that it is most definitely funct, and I shall make the effort to update whenever I come across something amusing that isn’t [...]

Well, hello stranger…

Tom Joad — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:46:53 +0000

I’m getting worse at this blog updating business. I have had a draft sitting around for months now, but I need the right tools before I can finish the job. If any of you lovely, lovely readers out there know of a runic font (TrueType, OpenType, that sort of thing) that will cover both the [...]

Crash Blossoms

Tom Joad — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:49:22 +0000

“Has Tom lost his spherical glass playthings?”, I hear you say. Not at all. The rather lovely and fun title ‘Crash Blossoms’ is, in fact, the term now used for headlines in newspapers, magazines and journals that just don’t read quite right. The term itself comes from an American editor based in Japan, one Mike [...]

Daphne Does Dictionaries

Tom Joad — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:08:24 +0000

Hello all, remember me? The one who glibly assured you that I’d be posting more this year? Well, I have been better, but time slips by, and well, you know… The charming Daphne Wayne-Bough has obviously noted that this blog has been emptier than the manifesto of the British National Party, and has provided me [...]

Krazy Keltic or Silly Seltic?

Tom Joad — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:19:31 +0000

As I am in the habit of doing, I found myself in an idle moment the other day musing upon why the Scottish football team (that would be ‘soccer’ to my American readers) Glasgow Celtic is pronounced with a soft c (an ‘s’, in effect) rather than following the usual convention of the hard ‘c’ [...]

Word Herd

Tom Joad — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:21:49 +0000

Rounding up this week’s mystery words Nothing specific this time around, word fans. More a collection of bits that have blipped on my radar recently. I’m going to have to stop talking to Mrs Joad, as she invariably says something to the effect of “hey, word man – what does (insert one of the many [...]

Missing Letters

Tom Joad — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:32:35 +0000

No, this is not a post about absentee landlords. OK, two resolutions for the new year. First, post more on Word du Jour, second, stop the crap jokes. Anyone care to take bets on which one collapses first? The idea for this post comes from my curiosity about why the name Dalziel is pronounced ‘Dee-ell’ [...]