McWriters

In the past couple of days (perhaps a bit longer), I have come across two interesting words that I want to delve into a bit more here in the blog. They are:
Brooches (commonly misspelled as ‘broaches’)
Lavalier
Both of these words are used in the jewelry industry. However, lavalier is mostly associated with microphones these days.
Anyhow, [...]

Since recently joining a gym and jumping back into the healthy routine of working out, I thought looking up and sharing the etymology of the phrase “Charlie Horse” would be interesting.
A charlie horse is usually a reference for a cramp or pulled muscle. Its origins have been traced to being a baseball term, or at [...]

I hated this word when I was a sophomore in high school and then again in college. However, when I was a junior and a senior…I thoroughly enjoyed using this word when the need arose.
Sophomoric: immature, bombastic, shallow, and superficial.
“The junior scolded the tenth graders, calling their immature behavior sophomoric.”
This word is derived [...]

Gauche: awkward or clumsy, lacking social graces
“His attempts at humor weren’t funny; they were gauche.”
In modern French, the word gauche means “left” which derived indirectly from the Latin word “sinistra” meaning left-handed.
This is an intriguing word to me for several reasons:

I’m left handed. I don’t think I’m awkward, clumsy, or lacking in social graces though. [...]

English is a quirky language. However, it often lends itself to interesting discoveries because of the diversity it contains. While I was in college, I took a course entitled, “The History of the English Language.” Yes, on the surface it may sound dull and boring but it was really quite the opposite. I enjoyed learning [...]