Q: What is the difference between a “hunger pang” and a “hunger pain”? I see both terms, but I can’t find them in my dictionary. A: “Pain” is an older, broader term than “pang,” but people use “hunger pains” and “hunger pangs” pretty much the same way—for the feeling ofContinue Reading
Q: In a YouTube clip I’ve seen, a pianist at a hotel lounge says he likes to “play to guests.” Is it “play to” or “play for”? Wouldn’t “play to” suggest currying favor with the guests, as in “play to the gallery”? A: The verb “play” is especially playful. YouContinue Reading
Q: The Playbill for Lincoln Center’s tribute to Oscar Peterson says Kenny Baron, one of the pianists performing, “honed his chops” playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, and other jazz musicians. How did “chops” come to mean skill? A test for your etymological chops. A: The story beginsContinue Reading
Q: We occasionally indulge in a late-night drink and an episode of Yes, Minister, the BBC sitcom from the 1980s. In the last episode of Season 1, Sir Humphrey says, “It takes two to quango, Minister!” We know you’ll enjoy the pun, but we’re also curious about the usage. A:Continue Reading
Q: In my ESL class, I wrote the following sentence: “I was sick yesterday, so all I did was resting at home.” My teacher said I should have written “rest,” not “resting,” but he couldn’t give a grammatical explanation. He said his native ear informed him. Was he correct? A:Continue Reading
The Grammarphobia Blog February 18th, 2019 Q: I’ve read that Thomas Jefferson, our third president, liked to coin new words. He thought neologisms kept a language fresh. For Presidents’ Day, please write about some POTUS contributions to the English language. A: Yes, Thomas Jefferson coined scores of new words, includingContinue Reading
Q: I see that you’ve used the phrase “red herring” several times on your blog, but I don’t believe you’ve explained how it came to mean something that’s deceptive or distracting, especially a false clue in a mystery. Did I miss it? A: No, you didn’t miss it, but nowContinue Reading
[Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and to mark the occasion we’re republishing a post from July 20, 2012, about a point of grammar in Leigh Hunt’s poem “Jenny Kiss’d Me.”] Q: I was browsing through a collection of “best loved poems” the other day and came across the charming rondeau “JennyContinue Reading
Q: Is it proper to use “foregone” like this: “the outcomes are foregone”? I know the phrase “foregone conclusion” is common, but that doesn’t seem quite the same. A: Our answer: “Why not?” As we’ll explain below, people today don’t routinely use “foregone” to modify nouns other than “conclusion.” ButContinue Reading