ArcaMax

Q: What's the deal with people using "flounder" when they really mean "founder"? Has it become such a common misuse that it's now acceptable? -- Sandra Duncan, San Jose, California

A: I'm not gonna flounder or founder here. The answer to your question is an unwavering and unsinkable "No!"

"Flounder" means "to struggle, to thrash about wildly...Read more

Today, renowned paleontologist U. Stew Mean enters his laboratory to examine linguistic fossils -- words whose archaic meanings still survive in modern terms and phrases. Let's watch as he examines his first specimen...

Hmmm. Tennis players call a serve that clips the net tape but still lands in the service box a "let ball." Is this because ...Read more

Several readers have asked me to clarify the proper use of "bring" and "take." Newcomers to New England, where I live, seem particularly dismayed at the misuse of these two verbs by us Yankees.

Jack McDonough, who moved to Connecticut from Pittsburgh, writes: "New Englanders say, 'They are going to bring something to another location rather ...Read more

Loyal members of the Word Guy Blooper Patrol have been scurrying around all summer to find errors in publications and other printed matter. Can you spot the blots they've discovered?

1. From a cocktail menu: "If you don't see something to peak your interest, we'll gladly make your request." I'll have a Mountain Dew on the rocks.

2. "We are ...Read more

"The snowstorm cometh." "Thou goest into the night."

Modern writers and speakers occasionally dust off archaic forms like these to impart a mock heroic tone, to evoke a poetic mood or simply to have fun.

Deployed judiciously and sparingly, these linguistic fossils can imbue your prose with class or sass. Who among us hasn't tossed around an ...Read more

Did the 18th-century Virginians George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry speak with what we now call a "Southern accent"? Probably not.

To be sure, the colonial period saw some regional differences in American speech. With no audio recordings of early Americans, we have to rely on written accounts, and several 18th-century ...Read more

Is it wrong to write "different than" instead of "different from"?

Several readers raised that question after reading this sentence in one of my recent columns: "When your grandmother uttered these sentences 60 years ago, they meant something quite different than they do today."

That brought a response from Kay Davidson, a publications ...Read more

When I began writing this column in the autumn of 1992, an unpopular incumbent president was running for re-election, people were distressed about the economy, a war was raging in eastern Europe (Yugoslavia) and the Middle East was in turmoil. Hey, wait a minute!

OK, so some things haven't changed much since 1992, but my views on four issues ...Read more

Q: Can you verify the theory that the computer "HAL" in the movie "2001 -- A Space Odyssey" is so named because each of its letters comes alphabetically just before a letter in "IBM"; that is, H/I, A/B, L/M? -- Joanne Watson via email

A: As HAL itself might have said, "I'm sorry, Joanne, but I'm afraid I can't do that." Sir Arthur Clarke, who...Read more

"Can you discuss 'comprise/compose' in your column," writes Carole Shmurak of Farmington, Connecticut, "or is it a lost cause?" (I'm going to presume the "lost cause" Carole mentions isn't my column but the fight to retain the distinction between "comprise" and "compose.")

No, Carole, it's not a lost cause! And even if it is, gosh darn it, as...Read more

And now for some gaffs ... er, gaffes from newspapers and magazines as reported by the ever-vigilant Word Guy Blooper Patrol.

1. "We kept editing and editing your piece until, low and behold, one day there was hardly any of it left." A low blow? 2. "... (a sculpture) topped with a bear-breasted woman." This story was probably written by a cub...Read more

When I discussed grammar and usage on a rather zany and offbeat radio talk show program a while back, several listeners telephoned with erudite, scholarly questions such as, "What's a nice guy like you doing on a show like this?"

Well, I couldn't answer that one, but questions from other listeners did raise some fascinating linguistic issues....Read more

My friend Myron from Montana asks me to take aim at the origin of "potshot."

In not-so-merry olde England, sportsmen followed very strict rules about what game animals could be hunted and when. Vigilant game wardens, wearing bright orange jumpsuits to avoid being shot and lugging thick manuals packed with regulations, patrolled the forests ...Read more