When I was growing up I remember hearing the term ‘grease zert,’ and I just assumed it was a made-up word. While my dad was skilled at a lot of things (drawing, aviation, mechanics,welding), he was not always known to handle the English language in a manner consistent with the generally agreed upon principles of usage […]
MadMania
Faith, Books, and Stuff
Tag: English
I see a lot of stuff online about, “Welcome to America, now speak English.” I do think immigrants to America should learn to speak English. However, I also think Americans should learn to speak English as well. And while we are learning how to write and speak English properly, perhaps we might also learn to be courteous to those […]
n., PONE-yerd or PWN-yerd for you gamers out there. As you could probably tell from the way the pronunciation doesn’t match the spelling, the word is indeed French. The Anglicized spelling is ‘poniard,’ and in French or English it refers to a small, tapering dagger. “She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.” –Benedick, from Much […]
Logos has long been known for making some of the best Bible study software on the market. They make a number of different packages, designed to match price and needed resources. However, most of their package require the belief a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek–and that exhaustive resources by individuals skilled in those languages– might be […]
A couple of months ago at work one of the secretaries brought a Chinese user down for some assistance with her laptop on the wifi network. The laptop had an English keyboard, but the OS was entirely Chinese. “Ni hao,” I said, almost entirely exhausting the Chinese I learned at my old job. “Oh, you […]
On this (traditional) date in 1536 William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake for the crime of heresy, heresy which included translating the Bible into English from the Hebrew and Greek source texts. “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause […]
“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” –English proverb
Pronounced SHIB-ol-eth. A shibboleth is a word, phrase, or mannerism that a group of people uses as a test to see if other people are members of that group. It might also be a joke. For example: There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those that understand binary code, and those that don’t. […]