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When I was growing up, my grandparents and other older relatives used an expression, "Use it in good health," or a variant, "Wear it in good health".  This was said when you bought something that you were very excited about, or received a wonderful gift, or made a major purchase. If you brought home a new coat that you loved, and tried it on to show her, along with "It's beautiful," or "It looks great on you," my mother would say, "Wear it in good health."  Another variant is, "You should wear it in good health." The you should  part is a wish or a prayer, similar to the more formal (and religious-sounding)  may you . It expresses a desire. In "wear it in good health," the you should  or may you  is understood.  Tangent: there is also a sarcastic version of you should . "Maybe the Democrats will grow spines and vote against this war." "You should live so long." This is roughly equivalent to he...

John McWhorter is changing my mind about language. And that is no easy thing to do. I'm a grammarphile. Word nerd, language junkie, spelling nut, stickler -- whatever you want to call it. I appreciate proper spelling and good grammar, and I cringe at all the bad grammar all around us. Apostrophe abuse drives me insane. Same for unnecessary quotation marks . Misspelled words on websites, signs, flyers, and official documents... don't get me started. Yet I also part ways with some of my fellow grammar-lovers. I believe grammar is important for writing, but not necessarily for speech -- and certainly not for casual speech. I hate seeing knowledge of grammar used to shame or exclude, or worse, as an excuse to not listen. Wmtc comment guidelines  warn readers not to correct another commenter's grammar or spelling. Even further, I believe it's perfectly all right to relax certain writing rules for casual writing. It's not necessary, in my view, to use awkward phrasing in...

It's 12.12.12! To all my fellow obsessives, enjoy the day!

Eponyms everywhere! Who knew? Our most recent list of eponyms was a smash success. It gave rise to at least three subcategories, as I wrote here : - Inventor/creator/discoverer, not genericized. These are eponyms, but have not entered the vocabulary as a separate noun or descriptor. Example: Alzheimer's. Compare to pasteurized. - Fictional characters --- Mythological names ----- Biblical names This list is more specific, and more difficult. Allan and I have done this one before, and even with help from a well-read listserv, came up with only a handful. (Idea for new reality show: Are you smarter than Wallace-L?) When Joseph Heller died, I marveled at how his creation has entered our vocabulary as such a widely recognized generic expression. The often-misused phrase "catch-22" was long ago separated from its origins. I'm sure many people use it who have never heard of Heller's book. I wondered if there were any other examples. Using a very strict criteria, we came...

I really enjoy learning about the origins of words and expressions. (I included this in our last list .) Several words now part of ordinary vocabulary started out as proper names. In 1880, a group of Irish tenant farmers organized a labour ostracism against the agent of an abusive absentee landlord. The agent's name was Charles Boycott. Charles Ponzi was a con artist who promised investors they would double their money in 90 days. In the film "La Dolce Vita," directed by Federico Fellini, an intrusive photographer is named Paparazzo. Thomas Bowdler was a crusading editor who published a book called "The Family Shakespeare": the Bard without the naughty bits. Bowdler believed his work made Shakespeare suitable for the delicate sensibilities of ladies (i.e., upper-class women) and children. So there we have four words - boycott, Ponzi scheme, paparazzi, and bowdlerized - that are derived from people's names. Can you think of any others? Adjectives like "O...

It's 11.11.11 !!! And I'm posting this at 11:11, of course. 10.10.10 was cool, and 12.12.12 will be cool, too. And I love palindromes, so 12.22.21, if I'm around for it, will be totally kickass. But 11.11.11 is the best . What can I say? This is the kind of thing you either like or you don't. I like!

When I first moved to Canada, I could really hear my neighbours' "accent" - their Canadian-sounding speech. Now I no longer notice it. People still sometimes ask me if I'm from the US, and occasionally someone recognizes my speech as New York- sounding. Recently, though, I've noticed the sound of my own language changing. My "sorry" now sounds more like "sirry" than "sahry". The other day, I said "zed" without thinking. It's interesting to me how this just happens, some kind of linguistic osmosis. As far as I know, I never sounded like this video, but some of it is irrefutable. "They're not usually quiet people." I recently read this review of You Are What You Speak - Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity by Robert Lane Greene. Greene makes it his business to dispel popular misconceptions, large and small. (Politicians and pundits, please note: the Chinese word for “crisis” is not ...

I had this post scheduled to go up at 11:11 a.m.... but it did not. Thanks, Blogger. Yay, it's 1.11.11! Isn't this fun? No? Not really?

It's 1.1.11! Or 01.01.11. Either way, I like it. Posting this at 11:11, of course

I'll probably write a combined "what i'm reading" post for everything I read on my winter break. But right now I'm reading a novel I love so much, that I just couldn't wait to tell you about it: Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead. I don't want to give too much plot away, because I love the way the novel unfolds, but here's enough to go on. A "nomenclature consultant" is hired to help a town re-name itself. This is a man who dreams up the names that brand our world - the popular pharmaceuticals, the cell phones, the toothpaste, household cleaners and video game systems. Now he's going to judge which name best suits an old town with a new look - new money and new computer-related jobs. But the town already has a name. Gentrification and job growth are important, but what about tradition? Which leads to the question... whose tradition? Turns out, the town's current and historic name was itself a re-naming, not unlike "America...

It's 10/10/10! I will schedule this post for 10:10 a.m. I see I did this last year in September . This date is even better. Something about those ohs and ones.

Last time I declared someone "my new hero," she turned out to be an actor doing a hoax. I don't care. I still loved the video of the fake assistant pretend-quitting her imaginary job. These guys are my hero of the moment, and they really did this, and wrote a book about it . And they had a sense of humour about it, too. Maybe on that cross-country trip I dream of making, we'll arm ourselves with white-out and Sharpies and help stamp out the scourge of apostrophe abuse . Incensed by a "no tresspassing" sign, Jeff Deck launched a cross-country trip to right grammatical wrongs. He enlisted a friend, Benjamin D. Herson, and together they got to work erasing errant quotation marks, rectifying misspellings and cutting unnecessary possessive apostrophes. The Great Typo Hunt is the story of their crusade. In 2 1/2 months, Herson and Deck traveled the perimeter of the country, exploring towns and cities in search of typos. They found 437 typos and were able to corr...

I love today's Daily Dose of Imagery . Some of those "kids today" who don't read anymore. Publishers and booksellers know it's not true. Youth librarians all over the country know, too. This future youth librarian has to prepare a presentation on two chapters of this book , due tomorrow morning. Allan has a post in the works, so I'll turn wmtc over to him* later today. Another important note about today: it's a palindrome. 011110. * Never!

Hey, I just realized today is 09/09/09. Think of me tonight at 9:09. See you later.

From the Daily Mail (UK): Punctuation hero' branded a vandal for painting apostrophes on street signs . This man's efforts, while noteworthy, leave the more pressing work untouched: wiping out the unnecessary apostrophes littering our visual landscape. Get out there and do your part. Erase an apostrophe today. Stamp out apostrophe abuse in our lifetime. Thanks to Fred for thinking of me.

The whole world is adding apostrophes where they aren't needed. Tire's for sale, hundred's of item's available, the Liberal Party announces it's decision. (Wrong, wrong, wrong.) But the city of Birmingham, England, is going in the other direction. Its a catastrophe for the apostrophe in Britain On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English. England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned. But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark. It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as "St. Pauls Square" or "Acocks Green." This week, the council made it official, say...