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A message from the author

After 20 years writing about the peculiarities and evolution of the English language I retired in 2017.

This site is no longer being added to and has become an archive. There are nearly 3,000 articles here on aspects of the growth and change of the English language. They should give you as many hours of browsing as you wish.

To find something in particular, consult the index or search using the box in the right-hand column on every page. There are many more articles on another site, my dictionary of affixes, in which I define and describe the many prefixes and suffixes in English.

It has been a pleasure to research and write on language and an honour through that writing to be able to inform and entertain many thousands of people. This site remains a reminder of my years of intense and intrigued interest in English.

Thank you for visiting.

Michael Quinion

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Copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–. All rights reserved.
Last modified 23 Mar. 2022.

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The English language is forever changing. New words appear; old ones fall out of use or alter their meanings. World Wide Words tries to record at least a part of this shifting wordscape by featuring new words, word histories, words in the news, and the curiosities of native English speech.

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996– All rights reserved.
This page URL: http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
Last modified: 23 Mar. 2022.