Browsing Month May, 2006
Today’s Word: Poliosis
Here’s a word for all you Anderson Cooper fans out there: Poliosis (pah-lee-OH-sis) means “grayness or whiteness of the hair, especially if it’s premature.” Poliosis comes from the Greek polios meaning “gray.” That same Greek root colors the English word polio, a shortened form of poliomyelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord’s “gray matter.”
Pay No Attention to that Woman Behind the Curtain!
Nobody talks about dictionaries and their contents with quite the same verve, wit, and plain old good sense as Erin McKean, editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary. So hurry on over to Powells.com, where she was recently a guest blogger. Verbivores will love her chatty rants on everything from how words get into dictionaries more…
