ETYMOLOGY: PEEVISH, PETULANT
“PETULANT” WAS the first word that came to mind when I heard Trump’s threat to dump immigrants into U.S.sanctuary cities. But then etymology furthered my enlightenment. According to Merriam-Webster, the … Continue reading
MATHEMATICAL INDUCTION: DOMINOES OF LOGIC
THE WORD “INDUCTION” has a whole bunch of meanings: Merriam-Webster starts with “the act or process of inducting (as into office),” which is sort of a definitional cop-out: What’s “inducting”? … Continue reading
STYLISH WRITING PART 1
THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of authorities on writing style, some of them even worth emulating. Readers of SimanaitisSays may already sense my trust in two sources, Merriam-Webster and The Compact Edition … Continue reading
SEVERAL MATHEMATICAL ETYMOLOGIES
WORDS IN MATHEMATICS have precise meanings. No surprise, this. And sometimes their etymologies have good tales to tell. Let’s look at “theorem,” and two of its related terms, “corollary” and … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: SCOUNDREL
TO QUOTE Trumpery of January 14, 2019, the president said that FBI personnel were “known scoundrels.” Were I a second-grader, I might respond, “It takes one to know one.” Given … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: TO COZEN, A COZENER
GIVEN THAT we may be entering the second half, and perhaps the end game, of Trumpery, it is not inappropriate to discuss classical terms for the personality type, in particular, … Continue reading
COMPLICITY AND COLLUSION—DUAL ETYMOLOGIES
MUCH IN the news these days, the words “complicity” and “collusion” warrant inclusion in my series of Etymology for our Times. It’s most appropriate to compare and contrast these two … Continue reading
