More and more often I hear or read in the media that "X has more Y than any" (rather than "any other") or "X has more Y than anyone" (rather than "anyone else"). By logic, that implies that X is not a member of the "any" or "anyone", rather...

Much to my surprise, as the result of a question asking how to draw a "pignon" gear, I have discovered that "pignon" and "pinion" refer to the same object in this sense, although the latter appears much more frequently in English. Curiously, although my first guess is t...

Pale fiber, flax or similar, used in making rope. Also, something else that is fibrous or threadlike and pale, as in "a tow-headed child". Also used as a noun, verb or adjective to denote something that pulls or is pulled, e.g., a tow truck, ski tow, tow a trailer, etc. The two senses are ...

I can provide one other adjectival form that isn't capitalized -- "abelian", after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. It is most often seen as the modifier to "abelian groups", an area of math that didn't arise until after Abel's death, but is based solidly on his wor...

The quiz says I must be from Philadelphia but if not, then from somewhere nearby, which includes Baltimore, which is indeed correct phonologically, if perhaps questionable geographically. The decision is based on only the vowel quality; I wonder if precision might be enhanced by checking on some voc...

Another "Baltimoron" here, although transplanted to Rhode Island ("Vode Eyelin") when I went off to college. I can vouch for the Ballamorese pronunciation as reported, although my mother (a second grade teacher) broke me of the accent. When I arrived in Providence, at a freshman ...

"... something close to music", indeed! I guess it depends on one's taste in music. A hurdy-gurdy is very much a part of Breton folk music, and crossed the Atlantic into Quebec. Here's another example of its use, as the background drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu267FQ431k . Sadly,...

What, no nod to the many uses of "partial" in mathematics? (Consider "partial derivative" or "partial differential equation", in the study of which I was sadly deficient, resulting in my chasing words instead of theorems.) It even has its own symbol, a "stylized d&...

The only problem with antlers is that I've never heard of the points coming in odd numbers. "Trophy" bucks are often cited as "eight-point" or "ten-point".

Am I missing something?

Maybe a triceratops?

As a child, I used to play a game called "Salvo" with my older sister. It was very similar to the board game now called "Battleship", but had a few different wrinkles, in particular that ships could be placed diagonally, and submarines hidden beneath the surface ships. This often...

Best of luck, Philip.

A former acquaintance, a teacher of typography, after enduring a similar procedure, referred to his condition as "semicolon".

May you never lose your sense of humor.

I've been lurking as a reader of the email distribution for years, but I couldn't resist signing up to add a meaning to this post. In addition to the meanings given, "tabby" (noun) is a construction material, a kind of concrete based on oyster shells, common in the Georgia Low Country. The...