What’s the difference between denounce and renounce? Their related Latin ancestors shared a neutral sense, but in English they acquired exclusively condemnatory connotations. Denounce is externally directed — one denounces another’s words or deeds — while renounce is internally focused… Read More

The week is almost over! How is work going? Here are some more freelance writing jobs to help you out. Have a good day! Freelance Writing Jobs Content Writing Article Re-writer (NYC) Article Writer – Dating Site (Anywhere) Project-based Content… Read More

This food stand from a craft show in Vermont makes the same mistake three times. I guess they are adamant that fry's is the plural of fry. With French fries on nearly every menu in America, I don't understand how… Read More

Some people have it, and some people don’t. But what, exactly, is it? Here’s a list of words describing a special quality that sets certain people apart from others, and their meanings: 1. Brio: vivaciousness (Italian, “fire, life,” perhaps… Read More

Little did I know my new hobby has some relevance to linguistics...I recently decided to try Geocaching because of my love for the outdoors and hiking. Right away I was introduced to the language of Geocaching through its Glossary of… Read More

The suffix -esque, one of a class of what are called adjectival suffixes, is adopted from the French version of the Italian suffix -esco, related to the standard English adjectival suffix -ish, and all of them mean like, or “related… Read More

After I posted a list of synonyms for trip, a couple of readers offered sojourn as an additional alternative. Unfortunately, however, they are victims of a common misunderstanding. Sojourn is actually a near antonym of trip. It means “a brief… Read More

Surveys and polls are in the news – not on the presidential campaign, but on the rise of e-books in the US and the rest of the world. The French and the Japanese have something in common, it turns out,… Read More

Look-alike, sound-alike words can cause confusion. Note the distinctions between each pair of terms listed below: 1. Abjure and Adjure Abjure, from Latin by way of French, means “to deny” or “to renounce,” or “to avoid.” Adjure, which took the… Read More

I've got a vacation planned--I'm heading to France for ten days, leaving...yesterday! If everything goes well, I should be arriving in Paris around the time this blog post goes live. I'm looking forward to passing a romantic few days in… Read More

Digital copies of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are now available at thousands of libraries thanks to a new partnership between Pottermore.com and OverDrive. The library partnership comes just days after the books were released digitally by Amazon and Barnes &… Read More

Today Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Pottermore revealed that the beloved Harry Potter series is finally available in digital formats. The individual books sell for $7.99 each–well below the price for the average bestselling eBook. Follow this link for the… Read More

Over a hill, through a tunnel, on the side of a road by the sea, this quirky van advertises a small cafe onboard Jaques Cousteau's old French built vessel the 'Physalle' that is now docked in Golden Bay.… Read More

Advertise here via BSA Movies have trailers. TV shows have trailers. Video games have trailers. And they all work. But book trailers? They’re terrible. Utterly terrible. Lost in Translation A movie/game/TV trailer is the perfect synergy of product and advert.… Read More

Listen: Elisa Gabbert – from “The Self Unstable” We’ve got Elisa Gabbert reading from The Self Unstable on the podcast today. Take a listen, it’s a good one. You can read the full text of the poem after the jump.… Read More

The Collins Dictionary editorial team recently introduced a new resource for language enthusiasts and I believe it is a worthy addition to the existing collection of internet dictionaries and thesauruses. It is collinsdictionary.com. The site includes English, French, German and… Read More

Umgangssprache German for 'colloquial language'.'unfilled pause' An interval of silence in speech: i.e. a pause not 'filled' by a hesitation form.uvular Articulated with the back of the tongue against or approximated to the fleshy appendage (or uvula) at the back… Read More

The conventions for referring to hair color are tousled. Why is it that we refer to someone with light-colored hair as a blonde (and, rarely, a blond) but we call someone with red hair a redhead? Why are blonde and… Read More

Good morning, everyone! What is your biggest writing project at the moment? I hope that you are enjoying it, whatever it is. For more gigs to keep you busy, here are the listings for today. Have a productive day! Freelance… Read More

The English subjunctive may well be dying, but I am shedding no tears for it. This unconcern is, perhaps, a minority view amongst men of letters, for whom saying if I were instead of if I was is often a… Read More

British author Andrew Miller has won the Costa Book of the Year for 2012 for his novel Pure, a fictional story set just before the French Revolution. Europa Editions will publish the book in June. Miller topped four other authors… Read More

pandialectal A term used primarily in dialectology and sociolinguistics to characterize any linguistic feature, rule, etc., which is applicable to all the dialects of a language.paronymy A term sometimes used in semantic analysis to refer to the relationship between words… Read More

Simon & Schuster imprint Atria Books has acquired the English language rights for Le Second Souffle (Second Wind) by Philippe Pozzo di Borgo. In 2001, Pozzo di Borgo published his memoir in his native France. The book inspired the… Read More

We make a lot of mistakes in English - but then, we publish a lot of words in English. We publish far fewer words in French, Latin and other foreign languages. Good thing, too, because our error rate when we… Read More

We make a lot of mistakes in English - but then, we publish a lot of words in English.We publish far fewer words in French, Latin and other foreign languages. Good thing, too, because our error rate when we venture… Read More

Here are some handpicked titles from our New Books section. Want to include your book? Just read our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book post. Don’t forget to include your title’s exact release date and a link. The Cookie Thief by Frances … Read More

langage A French term introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure to refer to the human biological faculty of speech. It is distinguished in his approach from langue, the language system of a speech community.listeme A term occasionally used in psycholinguistics for… Read More

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Here are some problematic frequently misspelled words and phrases of foreign extraction: 1. A capella: The Italian phrase, literally “in chapel style” but meaning “without instrumental accompaniment,” is two words. 2. Apropos: The French phrase for “to the… Read More

English has borrowed heavily from French, including a number of expressions beginning with en (meaning “as” or “in”). Some of these, such as “en masse,” are ubiquitous; others, like “en ami,” are obscure. Many more listed (and defined) here, italicized… Read More

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. We’ll be taking a break today to celebrate, reflect on what we’re thankful for . . . and to EAT!  Speaking of eating, valued contributor, resident expert on all things French, and gourmand Sophie Masson is running a series… Read More