Somewhere between “please give me grace” and “please give me a break,” there exists a tiny linguistic battlefield where adults with too much time on their hands argue about whether you can gift someone something. And I would just like to say, as a licensed user of words […]
We’ve known for a while that toddlers are tiny linguistic geniuses. They don’t need flashcards. They don’t need formal lessons. They just listen. They overhear conversations while stacking blocks or licking windows, and suddenly they’re using words you don’t even remember teaching them. It’s casual. It’s sneaky. It’s […]
I chose joy as my word many years ago. And it mattered. At the time, joy felt like something to fight for. To protect. To defend from people and circumstances that were very willing to take it. But joy changes. Especially in January. January is not a neutral […]
Every year, I try to choose a word. A small word with big responsibility. A word that quietly taps me on the shoulder throughout the year and asks, Are you paying attention? In the past in one year for example, I chose joy. And it mattered. I didn’t […]
I don’t know about you, but I used to look forward, with a level of geeky anticipation usually reserved for meteor showers and free samples at Costco, to the unveiling of the Word of the Year. It was like a linguistic holiday. A celebration of vocabulary! A moment […]
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about. This is your reminder that joy doesn’t always look like the Instagram picture you had in mind. It doesn’t always come with confetti, a perfectly staged latte, or a soundtrack by Lizzo. Sometimes joy shows up like a […]
Sometimes you rewatch a show not because you forgot what happened, but because you remember exactly how it made you feel. Enter The Night Manager. One of my absolute favorite shows. So good it’s basically therapy wrapped in espionage with a tuxedo and a silencer. Yes, I’m rewatching […]
The Tagalog word “gigil” has officially made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary’s list of words that are untranslatable in English. And let me just say, I love that this word exists, because it perfectly captures a feeling I know all too well. “Gigil” is that overwhelming […]
I have a long-standing love affair with words. Some people collect stamps, others collect coins, and I collect words. But not just any words—those esoteric ones that most people might only encounter while playing Scrabble or reading a philosopher’s manifesto. My husband loved to throw around obscure terms […]
Every year, linguists and dictionaries propose a “word of the year” that supposedly sums up the collective consciousness. This year, we’ve had some interesting contenders: “brain rot,” “polarization,” and even “demure.” But as I sit here and reflect on the world around me, I can’t help but think […]
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