Next Wednesday is Christmas, so this will be my last #WordNerdWednesday of 2024. To wrap up (pun totally intended!), I put together a compilation of the 5 most popular words/posts this year. Here’s a quick summary. To read the original posts go to: https://megan-burns.com/category/blog/word-nerd-wednesday/best-of-2024/ Did any of these (or any other WNW post) resonate particularly … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – COMPILATION
Word Nerd Wednesday – SNAKE OIL
Scams are everywhere these days, but they aren’t new. Unscrupulous people have been selling fake products for centuries. These fraudsters are often called “snake oil salesmen.” Smithsonian Magazine published an article recently that explains why. Here’s a summary: The term dates back to the 1890s when a man named Clark Stanley started selling bottles of … Read more
Word Nerd Wedneday – PLEONASM
Grammar checking tools can be great help, but the one I use has been driving me nuts lately. It keeps flagging an error in sentences that seem perfectly reasonable to me. For example, if I write “her own” or “exactly the same,” it says I need to cut unnecessary words. Technically, the words “own” and … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – THANKS
#WordNerdWednesday Somehow it took me nearly half a century to wonder where the word “thanks” comes from. Turns out it’s not a complicated story. Our modern “thanks” seems to derive from similar Old English (panc), Old Norse (pokk) and German (dank) words meaning roughly “good will” and “to remember or think of fondly, with gratitude.” … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – CLOCK
#WordNerdWednesday Big Ben is one of the most famous clocks in the world. Except it’s not technically a clock. It’s the 16-ton bell that rings when the Clock of Westminster hits the top of each hour. I understand why people are confused, though. The English word “clock” derives from the French word “cloche,” which means … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – ALGORITHM
Algorithms are everywhere. But what, exactly, are they? Where did they come from? The general definition of “algorithm” is “a step by step procedure for solving a problem.” For centuries, the only people who talked about algorithms were mathematicians. They originated with ancient Middle Eastern scholars and were brought to the west by Persian polymath … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – GUIDANCE
“#WordNerdWednesday Do you enjoy giving and receiving “feedback?” Probably not. For most people the word has a negative connotation. It brings to mind uncomfortable conversations and criticism wrapped in a sandwich of fake praise. Kim Scott, author of the best selling leadership book “Radical Candor,” recently shared a suggestion – call it “guidance” instead of … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – SAMHAIN
Tomorrow is Halloween. It’s not my favorite holiday, to be honest. I like candy, costumes, and carved pumpkins, sure. Ghosts, skeletons, and Grim Reapers? Scaring the heebeegeebees out of yourself and others? It’s not my idea of a good time. Where did these odd customs come from, I wondered? They trace back to an ancient … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – AGENTIC
I learned a new word recently – “agentic.” It came up during the launch of Salesforce’s new “Agent Force” platform Dreamforce 2024, which experts referred to as an example of “agentic AI.” When I tried to look up “agentic” in the dictionary, though, I found nothing. Words have to be fairly common to make it … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – CARAT/KARAT
I’ve always loved jewelry. Maybe it’s because my parents met working in a jewelry store! Still, I never knew the origin of the words “carat” (measure of gemstone weight) or “karat” (measure of gold purity) until last week when I watched a documentary on the ancient Nabateans. Back then, seeds of the Carob tree were … Read more
