It is said the Eskimos have fifty words for snow and certain people living in rain forests have fifty words for different shades of green. I had not noticed the big number of words for the brown color until I read "Heartburn", in which the main character's friend Arthur complains about colors--he doesn't know about … Continue reading New Word #3: Many Shades of Brown
Category: ESL
New Word #2: Spiel
Spiel means "a long or fast speech or story, typically one intended as a means of persuasion or as an excuse but regarded with skepticism or contempt by those who hear it." It can also be used as a verb. I wonder if some of the lectures I attended during my school days can be … Continue reading New Word #2: Spiel
New Word #1: Cacoethes
I've always wanted to talk about vocabulary, if only to help others just like myself. Being a non-native speaker, English vocabulary has always been a challenge. There are so many of them and a lot don't even sound like English. Avoiding is not possible; facing it is frustrating. How to deal with the feeling of … Continue reading New Word #1: Cacoethes
Frozen
I've seen this neighbor's dog in the neighborhood for quite a while, but I can never tell if his barking is a gesture of friendship or aggression. Thus I don't know if I should stop to pet him or to flee. His language, let's call it Doglish, is frozen at the point of not conveying … Continue reading Frozen
Word Confusion
Some words are created to communicate, while others just to confuse. I thought I read "ruminative" on an article about what Fran Lebowitz has to say about her current state of staying at home, but it is actually "remunerative". I don't know about native speakers, but as a person learning English as a second language, … Continue reading Word Confusion
Insomnia vs. Somnia
"Somnia" is not a word; "insomnia" is. That's just English. Non-native speakers (like me) beware. There are as many exceptions to the rules as those that follow the rules. Not only many words starting with "in" don't have corresponding antonyms that lose the prefix "in", but also some "in" and non-"in" pairs completely disregard the … Continue reading Insomnia vs. Somnia
What Does It Mean?
What does the word "russet" mean? Also words like "orb", "presage", "quaff", "brogue", "dirigible", "druid", "patisserie"? I have no idea. Some of them I've already looked up at least several times, but still I forget what the meaning. It must be my disappointing memory, but that's another story for another day. It sounds rather exhausting … Continue reading What Does It Mean?
Haoyan Do 