http://www.worldwidewords.org Copyright 1997-2010 Michael Quinion World Wide Words examines the English language from a British viewpoint. It discusses word histories, new words, the background to words in the news and problems of English usage. webmaster-rss@worldwidewords.org (Michael Quinion) rss@worldwidewords.org (Michael Quinion) Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT en-gb 1440 http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-adu2.htm It reads like a spelling mistake, but <i>adust</i> takes us back to medieval medical practice. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-adu2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-cri2.htm A misunderstanding of Chinese has led to the invention of <i>crisitunity</i> as shorthand for a modern proverb Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-cri2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sou3.htm The usual story about the origin of <i>southpaw</i>, referring to the alignment of early baseball parks, is just a good story. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sou3.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pet2.htm The story behind the Weird Word <i>petrichor</i>. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pet2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pan2.htm The story behind the Weird Word <i>panjandrum</i>. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pan2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sho6.htm A buzzword of the Obama administration, <i>Shovel-ready</i> actually has quite a long history. Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sho6.htm