Month: May 2017

• ‘Ditto,’ ‘skirmish,’ ‘zany’ and other words with surprising Italian roots

  The passage of the Republican bill in the House to repeal Obamacare tees up a skirmish in the Senate—oh, allow me to put aside the newsy connections today, as urgent as the issue is. I’m off to Italy for a week or so. Italian has given English a wealth of words for music (allegro, falsetto,…

  John Kelly

  May 5, 2017

  Feature

• Cheeky hogwash? The origin of “swashbuckler”

  In a rather imaginative assessment of the Civil War during an interview with Salena Zito of the Washington Examiner, President Trump called  Andrew Jackson a “swashbuckler” who could have avoided the American Civil War. Putting aside Trump’s grasp of American history, let’s get a firmer grasp on the history of his colorful word, swashbuckler.

  John Kelly

  May 2, 2017

  Feature