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The Origins of "Black Friday"
You can thank the put-upon Philadelphia traffic cops.
Today is the day after Thanksgiving, when holiday shopping kicks off and sales-hunters are in full frenzy. The day has come to be known in the United States as "Black Friday," and there are a number of myths about the origin of the name. Retailers would like you to believe that it's the day when stores turn a profit on the year, thus "going into the black." But don't you believe it: the true origins come from traffic-weary police officers in Philadelphia in the early 1960s.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
On Account of My Peeve
Everybody has a language pet peeve. Erin Brenner's is "on account of."
Recently I was writing a tweet and typed "on account of." Something about it seemed wrong to me, but I couldn't say what. I rewrote my tweet, determined to look into the troubling phrase when I had a moment.
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Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
You Be "-Illion"!
Million, billion, trillion, zillion: how we form names for big numbers.
Earlier this month, the Earth's population passed seven billion. During the summer, the United States' national debt (at least the official debt as calculated by the U.S. Treasury) hit $14 trillion. And in a joke that's been going around for about a decade, various people, including blondes, Texas Aggies, violinists, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have learned of the death of several Brazilian skydivers (or Brazilian soldiers in Iraq) and wondered, "How many is a Brazilian?"
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Grammar Bite: Making Media Agree
It can be tricky trying to decide whether "media" is singular or plural.
When media is used to refer to "means of mass communication," should it be considered a singular or plural noun? According to Erin Brenner, founder of Right Touch Editing, the answer depends on whom you ask.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Setting a Few Parameters
Some words often get confused, like "parameter" and "perimeter."
Though I became an editor partly because I enjoy finding fault in the work of others, I have on occasion tried to help my fellow man and woman right some of the more popular wrongs perpetrated against the language.
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Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word Lovers
Lexical Apostasy
A word like "shtick" can end up diverging from its original meaning.
Words step outside of their borders all the time; and once they are in new territory, they rarely follow the rules that bound them in their original context. As time passes, they can become complete strangers to their original users, and may even be seen as betraying them.
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Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
Hallow, What's This?
The name of the holiday "Halloween" has a peculiar past.
As most histories of Halloween will tell you, Hallowe'en (or Halloween) is a shortened version of All-Hallow(s)-Eve, but how and why did eve turn into e'en? For that matter, what is a hallow? Why did the all get dropped?
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