If you’re feeling washed out, fed up or downright lousy, World War One is to blame. New research has shown how the conflict meant that hundreds of words and phrases came into common parlance thanks to the trenches.

Trench Talk: a new study reveals the impact the First World War had on the English language.

The use of "mademoiselle" made reference without justification nor necessity to a woman's matrimonial situation where as "Monsieur" has long signified simply "sir".

Novelist Stephen King once said, "French is the language that turns dirt into romance." Is that why it is called a Romance language?

But it's true that we equate all things French with sophistication, whether it's food, clothing, art, or dirt.

As many as 30% of the words in the English language are of French origin (depending on whom you ask).

Modern English is the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness to expand.
- -Mark Abley, journalist (b. 1955)

A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal – Panama!

Remember: starting tomorrow it's Twenty-Ten

I've never liked the Zaner Bloser "F" - I could never understand why it was shaped like the "T". But the Palmer Method "F", that's a letter form I can get behind. Now that handwriting is dying off, I've started to work more on my cursive, so as not to forget. I think I'll practice some "F"s...

p.s. "fish lips"

Italians vote for the ugliest English words.

What is the opposite of "ambidextrous"?

"ambisinister"

PRONUNCIATION: (am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr)
MEANING: Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)

Why is "I" capitalized?

What is "jingle mail"?

I love to learn new words, their derivation and changing uses. Here is an unusual one I'd never heard before, quoted from Wordsmith Anu Garg--

dog's letter (dogz LET-uhr) noun
The letter R.

[From Latin littera canina, literally dog's letter. In Latin the sound of the letter R was trilled. Think Grrr! of a snarling dog. A good example of a trilling R is none other that the Spanish word for a dog: perro.]

Lucy Kellaway, a cranky Brit who writes for The Financial Times and is a commentator for the BBC, objects to phrases like "going forward" and "at the end of the day".

I am constantly reading and getting angry about the following common writing mistakes I find all over the place - which are easy to correct - so let's all take a minute at the beginning of 2008 to make an effort to avoid them...

Each year the Oxford Dictionary chooses a newly-coined word that has recently come into common useage, and proclaims it The Word of the Year. This year the word is locavore. The word means one who uses only locally grown foodstuffs. To demonstrate how well-chosen these words can be, two years ago the word was "podcast", which is in everyday useage now.

You can see the runner-up words at this same link.

The Origin of Everyday Punctuation Marks.

Decursivication (new word)

[di-kur-siv-fi-key-shuhn] noun. The process of losing one's penmanship, thanks to automatic billing and an increasingly e

Hatriotism. Use it in a sentence today!

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Hip teens are speaking The Ling. Dig?

Spelling Poems from the Simplified Spelling Society. An example:

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it'

Make a beeline for The Phrase Finder. It's a fairly extensive resource for looking up the meanings of common English phrases. I'd s