Jewish World Review
Editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition
Dictionary Men archives
09/28/06: Oral or verbal; origin of wheeling and dealing
09/13/06: Hoist by one's own petard; mad as a hatter; notions
09/07/06: red herring; penny dreadful; hightailing it
08/31/06: Wild-goose chase; fit to be tied; precipitous
08/17/06: Check and checkmate; rostrum and beak; precipitous
08/02/06: pull out all the stops; dog days; I couldn't care less
07/27/06: attic; all petered out; blown to smithereens
07/20/06: bigwig; hot dogs; spelling of poignant
07/06/06: bodegas; fiasco; how pretzel got its strange name
06/22/06: #0145;hooch; get down to brass tacks; being frank
06/07/06: Davy Jones's locker; kowtow; piecemeal
05/11/06: Origin and meaning of philistine; farce; freelance
04/27/06: Origin and meaning of opt; zest; buccaneers; Garrison finish
04/06/06: Origin and meaning of Varsity collated
03/30/06: Gossip once meant relative; incunabulum; poet laureate;
03/09/06: Scuttlebutt; angry and cross; jibe and gibe
02/23/06: Symposium of drunks?; origin and meaning of hallmark; doodad and doohickey
02/01/06: Origin and meaning of woebegone; blizzard; bunk; playwright not playwriter
01/19/06: Origin and meaning of honeymoon; rule of thumb; trans; as a word by itself
01/10/06: Origin and meaning of look things up; ingenious; syllepsis; surveillance
12/28/05: Origin and meaning of hoodlum; Everything was going fine and then I really came a cropper; with baited breath
12/12/05: Origin and meaning of serendipity; is it lounge or longue?; origins of domino?
11/28/05: Origin and meaning of let them eat cake; cobweb; lares and penates?
11/03/05: Origin and meaning of scot free; what is perfect about strangers?; origins of see the handwriting on the
wall?
10/11/05: Origin and meaning of maelstrom; is it recurring or reoccurring?; origins of calisthenics and aerobics; filibuster?
10/03/05: Origin and meaning of froufrou; longest isogram?; where does neck verse come from?
09/22/05: Origin and meaning of men of
the cloth; brassiere; take a powder?
09/13/05: Origin and meaning of shunpike; differences between founder and flounder; donjon and dungeon; origin and meaning of babblative?
09/01/05: Relation of sass to talk back?; Origin and meaning of car; mugwump?
08/24/05: Origin and meaning of handkerchief; nincompoop; tchotchke; gild the lily; Are these constructions ungrammatical?
08/18/05: Comparing parlous and perilous; Origin and meaning of jackpot; thank you ma'am?
08/11/05: Origin and meaning of butterfly effect; omelet; oxymoron?
08/04/05: Origin and meaning of the tables were turned; polka dot vs polka dance; quarry in animal use as opposed to mineral; the origin and many uses of laying an egg?
07/20/05: Origin and meaning of litterbug; K for thousand; tarmac; lynch; what is the correct usage between struck and went on strike?
07/14/05: Comparing bitter end to bitter in taste; Greek god Pan topanic; meaning and origin of gaslight?
06/16/05: What's the real way to say it?; what's special about The Bronx; meaning and origin of bloviate?
06/02/05: Meaning and origin of berserk; alibi; dismal?
05/25/05: Is spizzerinctum, a word?; meaning and origin of charlatan?
05/18/05: Meaning and origin of Italian pasta; what is proper use of most?
05/02/05: Meaning and origin of macaroni in the Yankee Doodle song; handsome is as handsome does,; when we did start using goatee and why?
04/19/05: Meaning and origin of au pair; the buck stops here; asunder,?
03/31/05: comparing gourmet and gourmand; when to use lay for lie; where did the word ritzy come from?
03/23/05: Source of kid; where does recusant come from?; what does on the bubble mean?
03/10/05: Source of the nickname the Big Easy for New Orleans; happy as a clam; grotesque or gruesome?
02/23/05: Canary Islands named for the cute little birds or for dogs?; Mirandize; morph and morphine
02/17/05: Military cadet and a golf caddie?; madder plant
02/09/05: Red tape; glamour and grammar?
02/03/05: Cesarean section; blue bag
01/27/05: Nightmares; Macadam discovered macadamia nus?; difference between extemporaneous and impromptu
01/19/05: 'Stool pigeon'; 'last hurrah'; train depots
01/12/05: 'Aught' and 'ought'; 'he doesn't know sickum'
12/30/04: Stranded'; 'over;'; circulars are square
12/16/04: 'Derrick'; 'scales falling from their eyes'; 'anthem'
12/09/04: Sailors using 'port' and 'starboard' for 'left' and 'right'; plural of compound words
11/30/04: 'Fly off the handle'; why the words 'left' and 'right' became associated with the political connotations of 'liberal' and 'conservative'; 'review' and 'revue'
11/17/04: 'Ball the jack'; Nazis
11/11/04: 'Catachresis'; 'kick the bucket' and dying; ballots
11/03/04: 'Divers' meaning 'different'?; 'The audience brought the house down'
10/25/04: 'Notorious' as a compliment?; 'and' as first word in sentence; 'yeoman' and 'yewman'
10/20/04: 'Shaggy-dog story'; 'tawdry'; 'Shawnee'
10/12/04: 'Busted'; differences between 'iterate' and 'reiterate'; 'the rain has quite abated'
10/04/04: 'Hat trick', 'rubber game' or 'rubber match'; source of 'spin doctor'; 'trope'
09/22/04: ' Redux'; 'elan'; 'swan-neck'
09/08/04: 'Adam's apple'; 'You sure lucked out'; 'the lion's share'
09/02/04: 'King's shilling'; 'Stockholm syndrome'; 'amid the alien corn'
08/24/04: Guacamole = avocados?; 'bona fides' needs plural verb?; 'exact same' redundant?
08/17/04: 'Nosey parker'; where the question mark came from?; why 'wash' doesn't rhyme with 'cash'
08/12/04: 'Vexillologist'; 'fifth column'; 'Homer sometimes nods'
08/05/04: 'Spitting image'; 'eclectic'; 'spendthrift'
07/28/04: 'Trousers'; 'argosy'
07/19/04: 'Sourdough wit'; 'headshrinkers'; 'seventh heaven'
07/08/04: 'The proof is in the pudding'; 'Pyrrhic victory'
07/01/04: Origin of 'vitamin'; 'binnacle list'
06/25/04: 'Abnegate' and 'abdicate'; 'feet of clay'; 'difugalty'
06/17/04: 'Whinge'; 'whole cloth'
06/10/04: 'The devil to pay'; 'crack', as in 'a crack marksman'; 'the dog that didn't bark'
06/03/04: 'Surrounded on three sides'; sleuths
05/18/04: 'Of the first water'; horses and horseradish; more
05/06/04: 'Historic' v. 'historical'; 'prestigious' = 'trickery'?; 'can of corn' as sports phrase
04/27/04: Derivation of 'bozo'; 'elt'; 'spill the beans'
04/21/04: Meaning of "budget'' in the word "fussbudget''; "bleeding hearts''; "skycap''
04/01/04: "Thin red line''; "doak"; "level playing field"
03/22/04: "King Canute"; "vodka"; "Cheese it. The cops!''
03/16/04: "Carrot and stick''; "hue and cry''; Where did the term "flea market'' originate?
03/09/04: Going "haywire"; "close, but no cigar"; "mahatma"
03/01/04: "Roundheel'' and "well-heeled''; "milquetoast"; "sick as a dog''
02/26/04: "Charley horse"; "`Foolproof''; "cracker-barrel''
02/17/04: "Dunce''; titles "Mr.'' and "Mrs.''; "under the weather''
02/10/04: "Turnpike''; "dead reckoning''
02/02/04: "Mutt"; "lobby" in its political sense; "procrustean bed"
01/27/04: "Decimate"; "duende"; a dessert "junket"?
01/14/04: Is "MacGuffin" related to all the "Mac" and "Mc" words we've been hearing about recently?; "afghans" and "Afghans"; "since Hector was a pup"
01/09/04: Confused about the word "hearsay"; "Burgle"; "waiting in line" or "waiting on line"?
12/31/03: The past tense of "plead''; Is "old adage'' redundant?; Where did "lounge lizard'' come from?
12/15/03: "Ostracize" and "oyster''?; Where does the "mentor'' come from?; "jeopard''
12/02/03: "Karats'' and "carats'' meaning of and difference between; why apostrophe in "'cello''?; "hell-bent for leather''
11/18/03: "Hoosegow,''; why the little finger is called the "`pinkie''; difference between "lady'' and "dame''
11/13/03: 'Take it on the lam'; 'decorum'; 'you look like the wreck of the Hesperus'
11/03/03: Origin of "hypnosis"/"hypnotism"; "all right" or "alright"; emote
10/28/03: "Blue plate special"; how to use "hoi polloi''; "Peck's Bad Boy''
10/20/03: Who was the person the artist who first used "silhouette" as an art form?; why are they called migraine headaches?; origin of "keep one's shirt on"
10/13/03: "Grey'' in "greyhound'' has nothing to do with the color?; "at loggerheads''
09/29/03: Where does the word "karaoke" comes from?; people or persons?; "synecdoche"
09/23/03: Using "eke'' correctly; fedora; why do we call an especially flattering biography a "hagiography''?
09/10/03: Why do we call a zero score in tennis "love''?; "biannual'' or "semiannual''?; Is there any difference between "further'' and "farther''?; dilemma of using "dilemma''
09/02/03: "Out loud'' rather than "aloud''; "pushing the envelope''; "without rhyme or reason''
08/25/03: "Cheesy''; "hold a candle''
08/11/03: "Halcyon days''; Why isn't "sacrilegious'' spelled "sacreligious''?; "red light'' and "green light'' as expression which came first, the inaction or the signals?
08/04/03: "Votive'' candles; "cosmeticizing"; "potluck''
07/28/03: Why debt has a b in it; "south moon under''; why "Rx'' is used for prescriptions
07/21/03: "Romance" & "Rome"?; punching & clocks; "conversate"
07/14/03: "Lukewarm''; Where did we get the word "wig'' for a fake head of hair?
07/09/03: Why doesn't "Arkansas'' rhyme with "Kansas''? ; "Catawampus"; "Jimmie Higgins work"
06/30/03: "Foozle"; author who wrote an entire novel without using a certain letter of the alphabet?; "kith and kin"
06/23/03: "On the fritz"; "knuckle down''
06/17/03: How did "lazy Susan'' come to be used for the rotating tray?; woolgathering'' as synonym for "idle daydreaming''; "in harm's way''
06/09/03: "Clotheshorse"; a god named "Ammonia"?
05/29/03: With kid gloves; "receipt'' = "recipe''?; from soup to nuts
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