We’ve probably all been there. In the middle of a heated debate, our frustrated opponent hauls out the ol’ “what about . . .” followed by some horrible…

For some reason, the word shutdown has been on my mind lately…but let’s look at the word itself. Like many in English, it’s a compound word, and my copy…

The underpinnings of Donald Trump’s leadership style have often been described as “transactional.”Observers and analysts seem to mean by this term an…

The holiday season and the year’s end have a lot of people taking stock.Gratitude proliferates on social media, a new thanks for every day, for family and…

After this year’s midterm elections, news-types spent countless hours trying to decide if the results could be described as a “blue wave” or not.“Blue…

The term “dog whistle” pops up in politics with much higher frequency these days.A literal dog whistle is a whistle that emits sounds at a pitch beyond…

When an American uses the term “witch hunt,” a few inter-related referents come to mind.The first of these is to the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of…

You can’t avoid the word “pumpkin” this time of year, even if you’re the sort of person who avoids pumpkin flavors or pumpkins themselves.“Pumpkin” is a…

Those who do search engine optimization for a living contend that the hashtag is not all that useful, since few people actually use them to search for the…

Recent debate over removing Confederate statuary from public spaces illuminates the intersection of words and other forms of expression.The civil rights…