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Weekend Word Wrap: contronyms

First coined by Richard Lederer in the late 80s, contronyms are a whole lotta fun. I've also read that they're called antagonyms, as well. However you want to call "˜em, the basic idea is this: one word that has two meanings which are fairly opposite one another. An example? Sure, why not: the word cut can mean both to get out of ("We cut school") and to get into ("We cut in line"). Another good one: release. On the one hand, it means to set free and on the... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: chiasmus

For those who don't know, or may have forgotten, a chiasmus is a grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two parallel clauses is inverted in the other. That's how the OED defines it, and that's pretty much the clearest definition I could offer up. More directly, JFK's famous, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," is a great example of a simple chiasmus. (You pronounce it kahy-az-muhs, by the way, and it comes... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap

Today's Word Wrap keeps on with our tradition of bringing you the hippest, most happening new words and phrases being coined, as they're coined... well, okay, with at least a 5-second delay. Today's sparkling entries, as usual, are brought to you by the good folk over at wordspy.com shoefiti (shoo.FEE.tee) n. One or more pairs of shoes tied together by the laces and dangling from a powerline or other type of overhead wire. (Citations) newpeat n. A repeat that is slightly different from the... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: Your Default Song

I'm nearly certain I've invented something original here and wanted to share it for two reasons: a) how many times do you really get to be self-congratulatory in life, eh? And b) if I'm wrong, and someone else has already coined this phrase, I'm hoping one of you loyal readers will now embarrass the bravado out of me, and quickly. I've written about the concept in a novel I've recently finished, but thought it would be fun to drop it first here in the Word Wrap,... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: water and house

I'm using the Word Wrap to dive into the micro today by looking at the origins of two words as they evolved from letters. As you may already know, written language began developing back in the Middle Bronze Age. Many think proto-hieroglyphs were even around as far back as the 33rd c BC. Whether that's accurate or not, certainly by the 14th c BC, Canaanites and Phoenicians were well on their way, and the Hebrews, who came out of the Canaanite hills, might have been developing their language as... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies

This post will feel more like my Book Corner feature, but it's not. It's hard to review a book you haven't read. To be honest, that's partly why I'm posting on Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies "“ hoping the author, June Casagrande, will Google herself soon, spot this unabashed plea for a free copy, and, thankful that I've promoted it to tens of thousands of you faithful Word Wrap readers, will have no choice but to invite me for coffee and autograph a copy to me.... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: Mad Libs

Recently I've been thinking it would be cool to create a TV show version of Mad Libs, which I adored so much as a kid I think if I added up the cumulative hours spent playing, it might be like an entire year of my adolescence. In doing some research, I discovered there's already been a rather successful children's show, but never a grown-up version. And while I'm still not entirely sure what the show would be like, I'm getting closer. So if you have words of wisdom -... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: On Music

I thought I'd end the week's ON MUSIC posts by combining one last one with my usual Friday feature. For those who enjoyed the new feature, don't worry, they'll be making periodic appearances in the ensuing weeks. In the meantime, here are a bunch of words and phrases I like that have crossed over from the lexicon of musical terminology into everyday speak. People are said to act harmoniously, or even in concert with one another. Someone's last major job or work of... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: mnemonics

First I want to congratulate Bill "T" on his winning entry from last week's Word Wrap. We thought reintarnation - the phenomenon of being reborn as a hillbilly "“ was rather clever and creative, especially given Bill's name: way to swap the T for the C, "T." Today I'm all about mnemonics. First of all, let me just say I'm passionately in love with any word that starts with a consonant followed by the letter "n." I mean honestly, there needs... READ ON

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Weekend Word Wrap: neologisms and such

Not sure if you all got the email going around a couple weeks ago with The Washington Post's winning submissions for its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. Some of my favorites include: Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men. I've posted the complete list after the jump. Meanwhile, The Washington Post's Style... READ ON