Wordwizard

I remember the days when you would have been given a pantechnicon. I always loved that word. I didn't know its origin. So I did whatwe do here ... My dictionary defines it (first) as a furniture warehouse and (second) as a furniture van. The first surprised me. Wikipedia has the full story: The wor...

That's interesting about the Collins dictionary. My family was always quite dismissive about them (and my Dad was a director of Collins). I'll have a look at a newer one. Phil, Erik do you not miss that happening on a word that you get with paper. An example, from today and in brief. The word to fin...

I think that spooning in the cuddling sense is far more likely to come from the way that two spoons fit together rather than ... I mused over the choice of spoon in this phrase whilst returning items to the cutlery drawer. Ours starts with the small spoon: the tease-spoon (OK, I know), and then mov...

I see... The 'special' kind of 'special'! :D What did you dislike about it, Bob? (I've never read it, so I'm just curious.) Bob, I'm with Erik on this. You can't just leave it as "awful" without an explanation! Erik, time has turned it a few shades darker than it probably was at the time. It was ce...

They gave me a/this van in which to carry my belongings

I'm not telling you.

After a period of separation I am being reunited with my books. As it has been quite a while I have had to rely on electronic dictionaries. This has given an added piquancy to the aroma, the typography, the feel of the paper and that serendipity that accompanies looking for a word on a printed page....

Good point, Tony. And thanks for posting the Ingres painting here; it underscores your comments very well. Thank you. When you see the painting this quote (repeated from above) seems ever more tragic from the Wikipedia page: The model for the painting was the young daughter of Ingres' concierge.[11...

@Erik_Kowal The first point I was making was the differentiation between "altogether" and just head, feet or hands or whatever. It is the reference to Ingres that makes it clear, that in that context at least, she must be nude and that the writer of the editorial originally quoted must have missed t...

I must say I was surprised by the origin being Trilby and then the coyness over the declaration that she was nude. An uncle of mine was an artist and would collect body parts in a notebook: noses, feet, hands (and other bits) and, like Constable with his stock of trees to put in a deserving landscap...

In general both are acceptable but they both allow for the answer "yes, A or B is the correct answer". If you want to be absolutely precise (in allowing only one to be chosen) you need a construction such as: 1. Which of A or B would you say is the correct answer? 2. Would you say A is the correct a...

I like that. My version is:

The difference between an entomologist and an etymologist is that an etymologist knows.

A venerable response their Phil. I am always in awe of how you can illuminate such things for us poor mortals.

As far as I can see you have addressed the scenario where Paris is the name of the city in question but, not where Paris is the name of the person being addressed.

@bobinwales: one for you https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4552196/?r ... flmg_act_1

I would reject 3.

1 or 2 might depend on whether, say, Rick Hilton was talking to his daughter.