Dear Ms. Tunghin-Chic, Thank you. You make a legitimate observation. The topic is perhaps beyond the scope or focus of this website, but the digression is worthy and ultimately bears on the morphology of language. Let me begin by understating the obvious; the relationship between indigenous and Span...

While the word "enfilade" derives from French, Latin and ultimately PIE, the concept is not unique to the Indo-European experience. It is a pleasing architectural feature that has been discovered and embraced by other cultures. Attached is an example of enfilade in Incan architecture, in t...

Steve Martin related this (apocryphal?) cerebral anecdote about the perils of celebrity and the inefficacy of incognito devices. Asked if he could enjoy ordinary life about Manhattan without the constant recognition by well-intentioned fans, Martin said he had recently tried to take a private walk i...

Too often we are willing to ignore what is called "institutional" racism--as if stubborn vestiges of official racism do not exist. For those who think it is always preferable to resolve controversial cultural issues through the political process at the state level rather than through the f...

Do genius, disingenuous and ingenious share a common etymology? The latter two words have a “u” where the first does not. I suspect they are related, but etymology is above my pay grade and I have posted foolish folk etymologies too many times in the past. That said, I suspect “ingenious” is in fact...

Let’s not overlook that delicious word “saltimbocca,” literally a contraction of the Italian “salta in bocca” from “(it) jumps into (one's) mouth.”

"Fletch" is a beautiful rare word. As I noted in my post to "fress", some such words should be given new currency, others are delightful in their own right but will remain bijoux of limited current potential. "Fletch," I think, is of the second category. That doesn't me...

Well, real life can give us aptronyms. While not as tightly crafted as names invented for fictional characters, they do stand out for their inadvertent irony. In December the SEC indicted the CEO of FTX for fraud involving bit coin investors. He was released after posting bail. His name is Sam Bankm...

I posted this two years ago when “sinistral” was the word of the day, but I think it is worth reprising: Pierre Elliott Trudeau, when he was Canadian prime minister, listened patiently to a socialist delegate expounding interminably and gracelessly. At the end, Trudeau said simply, “How fortunate we...

As an architectural style, enfilade can be quite grand. See these images: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=556984006&hl=en-us&q=images+of+enfilade&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGmsTZ3t2AAxW5nIQIHQuWBpMQ0pQJegQIGhAB&biw=390&bih=661&dp...

David, And as I recall from detention at my primary school, often written as "...turbulent priest". I would have thought that troublesome was a more appropriate word. But turbulent may have meant something different in those days. I wonder what he actually said. Good observation. Apparentl...

“Stochastic” is a word very much in vogue among reporters today. Several of them described as “stochastic” the intended actions of a man whom the FBI shot yesterday because of highly specific threats the suspect made against the President and the prosecutors and judges in the cases involving Donald ...

Thanks Slava. That’s the look.

I would add to Dr. GoodWord's definition this third entry (from Dictionary.com): "3. completely calm, without distress or worry: a limpid, emotionless existence " This usage of limpid apprears in a review in the current issue of The New Yorker: Angus Cloud’s Eyes Said It All With his limpi...

Slava, I have encountered "diachronic" only once in print, in a 2017 Economist review of Bettany Hughes' masterful "Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities." Here is my attempt to use "diachronic" in the manner you seek: I would apply the word to the movie "Oppenheimer,&q...