Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman write books, blog, and tweet about the English language.
“Not trying to” means lacking the intention or desire to do something, while “trying not to” means actively making an effort to avoid doing something.
The words "Irish" and “Hibernian” have had the colloquial sense of illogical or paradoxical for several centuries.
The verb "prelude" can now mean to introduce or precede, but it once had the more ominous sense of “foreshadow," as did the Latin source of the verb.
The noun “work” has been used in singular and plural forms to mean a factory since the 16th century, but the plural "works" is more common now.
The English subjunctive has been gradually disappearing since Anglo-Saxon days, with ups and downs along the way, but it hasn’t disappeared yet.
Language authorities are divided today on whether an “acronym” is an abbreviation pronounced as one word or as individual letters.
“Performative gratitude” first appeared about a dozen years ago on social media as a term for a formulaic or stock expression of thanks.
The verbs “see” and “hear” can express many states or actions. One can "see" a rainbow (perceive it with the eyes) or "see" Hamlet (be a spectator at the play).
The term "ill-being" is relatively rare, but you can find it in several standard dictionaries, where it's defined as lack of prosperity, happiness, or health.
When "cutting corners" appeared in the early 1800s, it referred to riders and drivers who made their horses take corners and bends in the road too sharply.
The evolution of “my” and “mine” as possessive adjectives was messy until "my" became the universal first-person possessive adjective in Modern English.
How the verb "table" took on a new meaning when it crossed the Atlantic.
The preposition “on” has been used by respected writers since Anglo-Saxon days to mean about or concerning, a usage recognized in standard dictionaries.
The use of “meteoric” for something that rises may seem counterintuitive, but the adjective has been used that way for more than a century and a half.
When the expression “make the cut” first appeared in print, it referred to people who didn’t “make the cut” for Christmas bonuses.
The use of “drop” for the release of new music, software, movies, podcasts, and so on apparently originated in the late 1980s in the world of hip-hop and rap.
The spelling of “lose” as "loose" in casual writing today may be influenced by the double “o” in “choose,” a word that rhymes with “lose.”
How "ye" came to mean the definite article "the" and pronoun "you."
The word “literate” has meant educated or learned since it first appeared in English in the 14th century, though iIt now usually means able to read or write.
Why did Robert Herrick switch from "ye" to "you" in the last line of his 17th-century poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”?
