language

Looking at late 19th century language peeves can often point to a change in progress, but not always.

Of all the topics we could cover this week on That's What They Say, we chose these ones over those ones.

A sea change can now be caused by many things other than the sea, and some of its dramatic effects have been lost in the process.

We're going to try not to touch the third rail, but we are going to talk about it.

Major League Baseball playoffs and football tailgate season both mean the smell of hot dogs is in the air.

We don't encounter petards very often anymore. That’s unless we’re being, metaphorically speaking, “hoisted with our own petard.”

There are plenty of people out there who see "utilize" as a pretentious substitute for "use." However, some people are completely comfortable utilizing the verb "utilize."

There’s the “yea” in voting “yea” or “nay," and then there’s the celebratory “Yay!" Oh yeah, there's also "yeah."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. There are a lot of ways to spell "whoa."

You could say, "I don't like him singing," or you could say, "I don't like his singing." Believe it or not, some folks have very strong feelings about which of those is correct.