Tag: Words

  • ETIOLOGY – Word Of The Day – build your word power

    Etiology is the study or attribution of where things have come from. Too much etiology can make you grumpy and start accusing people of using words incorrectly. The fact is the meanings of words change over time. In conversation, most people know what a word means because of the context and inflection. Lawyers need to…

  • DECIMATE – Word Of The Day – build your word power

    It’s so easy to get worked up over this word. It actually comes from the latin meaning to killed one in every ten soldiers in an army. It has come to mean – to wipe out. So you will hear, “Our postal service has been completely decimated.” Purists will then say, “Oh, you mean it’s…

  • NUBBLY – Word Of The Day – build your word power

    Nubbly is almost knobbly but more blunt and stubby. I got to know this word from Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Story, How The Whale Got His Throat. The whale asks the Stute Fish what man tastes of. “Nice,” says the Stute Fish. “Nice, but nubbly.” My computer says it comes from the 19th century word,…