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Mandela on writing
While reflecting on the remarkable life and legacy of Mandela, I perused some of the many letters he wrote, mainly to family, during his 27-year incarceration. I chanced upon the following apt words of encouragement he wrote to his daughter, Zindzi, on … Continue reading
Posted in Language Use, Words
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It’s actually quite good…
The nuances of the meaning of words, according to culture and standards of politeness, makes for fascinating study. Duncan Green provides a decoding table for British expressions on his blog at http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=5672 The British are masters of understatement (which is … Continue reading
Acronym FAQ
Acronyms are brief words formed from the initial letter of a bag of other closely associated words. The word “acronym” was coined in the forties, blending the Greek words “akron” (top, tip) and “onoma” (name). So the first letter of … Continue reading
Posted in Language Use, Letters, Words
Tagged abbreviations, acronyms, initialism, neologisms
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Psychological Scampi
I’m one of those rare individuals who actually likes reading ad spam. Really. And I say so without a hint of pretension. The pieces with colourful (read appalling) grammar or syntax don’t do it for me. It’s my delight, however, … Continue reading
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New dotcom bombs my blogs
With my client portfolio steadily progressing internationally, I decided to change my website address from a dotcoza to a dotcom. I would have liked to have done so a few years ago already, but a namesake in the safari and … Continue reading
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Homophones visited upon me lately
Lightning recap. Homophones are words that have a similar pronounciation but different spelling and different meanings. They continue to be the bane of literate society. The following homophones brought some levity to my dismal week of copy chopping: An email from a client, with a … Continue reading
The dragon’s secret
The Chinese Year of the Dragon (2012) has sunk its talons into the collective psyche of the western world. So I grabbed my trusty SKEAT’s Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (revised edition, 1885) to cast light upon the origin of the word. Dragon is derived … Continue reading
Resonating with Byron
“Words are things; and a small drop of ink falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” – Lord Byron (1788-1824)
My karma ran over my dogma
However objective you may wish to be as a writer, there will always be a lens through which you perceive and colour the world. Your writing will reveal shades of your cultural identity, political affiliations, moral compass and “education”, for example. The … Continue reading
On the economy of writing
“It’s always just 26 letters of the alphabet and a handful of punctuation, and that is so staggeringly elegant… it’s just you and the page, and there is something very addictive about that.” – Alan Moore
