Scarf has two plurals—scarfs and scarves. Scarves is the preferred form, but scarfs is the original and was preferred before the 20th century. It’s still used, but only less than once for every 20 instances of scarves. [Read more...]
Drink the Kool-Aid
To drink the Kool-Aid is to become a firm believer in something or a passionate follower of a philosophy or movement. The expression is usually pejorative, implying that the Kool-Aid drinker is blindly following something that doesn’t merit such devotion. It also may suggest the drinker has forgone individuality and slipped into groupthink. But it is occasionally used positively. [Read more...]
Anytime vs. any time
Dictionaries list the one-word anytime as an adverb meaning at any time, and they don’t assign it any other functions. But the word is also frequently used as a subordinating conjunction, synonymous with whenever and usually meaning every time that. [Read more...]
Canary in the coalmine
When exposed to toxic gases, canaries suffer ill effects and die sooner than humans do. That’s why coalminers used to bring caged canaries into the mines with them. If the canaries became sick or died, this was a sign that something was seriously amiss and that the miners needed to get out. [Read more...]
Gainsay
Gainsay means to declare false or to contradict. It’s a transitive verb, meaning it has to act upon something. So you can’t just say “I gainsay,” full stop. You have to gainsay something. And what’s gainsaid is not the person you disagree with but the statement you wish to contradict. So, for instance, if you disagree with our definition of gainsay, you don’t gainsay us. You gainsay our definition. [Read more...]
Phosphorous vs. phosphorus
Phosphorus denotes the chemical element (with the symbol P and the atomic number 15) present in a few types of minerals found on Earth. It comes from a Latin word for morning star, and it is so named because it glows when exposed to oxygen.1 [Read more...]
Kaput
Kaput is a slangy loanword meaning dead, finished, or useless. Though kaput is the spelling listed in all the dictionaries we checked, the word is sometimes spelled caput. Spell check doesn’t catch this misspelling because caput is a dictionary-recognized word, from a Latin word for head, sometimes used in English science texts.1 [Read more...]
Foul vs. fowl
Fowl refers to birds, especially chickens and game birds. It has no non-bird-related definitions. Foul has many definitions, including (1) offensive to the senses, (2) morally detestable, (3) a violation of rules of play, (4) to make dirty, and (5) to commit a violation against rules of play. [Read more...]
Decimate
Decimate has a few obsolete meanings, including (1) to take a tenth of, (2) to divide into tenths, and (3) to put to death one in every tenth of, especially as punishment for mutiny.1 Today, however, it’s usually used to mean (1) to destroy a large part of, or (2) to inflict great destruction on. [Read more...]
Pixelated vs. pixilated
Though pixelated is the correct spelling of the word meaning rendered with visible pixels, there’s a good reason that spell check does not catch pixilated. Pixilated is an old, seldom-used Americanism dating from the middle of the 19th century and peaking (in this use) in the middle 20th century. It meant (1) crazed, bewildered, or whimsical, or (2) intoxicated.1 [Read more...]
