WORDS -

Books

Library of Congress Home Page
The last word on books. Research tools, special exhibitions, and more.

Expression and Expressions

2018 List of of Banished Words
In 2013 the list highlighted words like 'trending'. (The 2010 annoyances included 'tweet' and 'app'.) Other exaples include such noxious and/or overused phrases as 'bucket list' and 'fiscal cliff'. From Lake Superior State University. Here's an update for 2018. (No "spoiler alerts")

Acronym Finder
As the name suggests, a very useful page dedicated to helping out when faced with acronyms rather than fully spelled out association names, abbreviated common expressions (a.s.a.p., etc.), from A to Z. Effective with e-acronyms, too. For example, I asked it to define ttyl, and it came up with 2 definitions. TTYL: 1) Talk To You/Ya Later 2)Type To You Later

New Words & Slang
From Merriam-Webster, who offer a great online dictionary (below) but no longer offer their earlier archive of Cool Words and Slang. :-(
This new collection from their Open Dictionary is cute and fun though.

Quotations
Several decent collections were found once as part of a quotation ring community, many of the quotes now gathered here by brainyquote.com listings.
For purists, there's Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

Useful Idioms
No, that's not an oxymoron! An accidental discovery, this is a neat page for word lovers.

Freedom of Speech

CyberTimes Communications Decency Act Homepage
NY Times Archives, Feb 96 - November 97
[Non-subscribers can register at http://www.nytimes.com]

Grammar & Syntax

11 Best Uses of Bad Grammar - From the Simpsons
This is juzf for fun, like the Marx Brothers on 'Sanity Clause' perhaps, very clever, and clearly very wrong (in terms of grammar, at least). Be careful not to imitate or you too might find yourself saying, 'Me fail English? That's unpossible!' (The Week)

Gallery of Misused Quotation Marks
Do you find it "annoying" when just about everything is "quoted"? Here's an award-winning site which feels your pain. It's a lovely gallery, too. :-)

Apostrophes
Apostrophes are among the most abused of our beloved language symbols. Many have risen to defend apostrophes' proper use in English, among the pioneers Sue Palmer, who deserves credit for her early online resource now re-discovered (as archived in 2007) thanks to the Web Archives's Wayback Machine:

Home for Abused Apostrophes
A fervent call to respect the apostrophe. Part of a collection of pages illustrating words at work. Includes homage to SPELING MISTeaks as well as some serious essays on words. From Sue Palmer's Language Live pages.

In addition, two other organizations/pages have recently appeared to promote the proper care and use of the apostrophe:

ApostropheAbuse.com
A busy and bright blog devoted to Apostrophe Abuse, featuring images of recently-spotted signs, adverts, etc., which would seem to rebuke the very purpose of apostrophes, if not proper languageuse in general - and might bring a smile or frown along the way.

How to Write Good
Funny and smart look at the fine art of writing gooder. [sic] By experts. :-)

Language & Meaning

Language & the Way We Think
A review of research into how our professions and experiences shape our daily use of language. (Fenichel)

Linguistics
As some of the personal sites dealing with specific aspects of linguistics and language have disappeared, I find one of the best general indexes is that which has grown huge within Wikipedia. At the risk of angering many teachers and librarians ["Students! Always cite additional reliable references beyond Wikipedia!"] I'd suggest this as a good starting point for anyone seriously looking for specific aspects of "language" and linguistics.

Literature

FanFiction.net
I knew this must be something special when several teens told me they are "addicted" to this site, self-described as a place to "unleash your imagination and free your soul". This increasingly popular site allows book-lovers to embellish or offer alternative possibilities for existing literary masterpieces, and/or to present original works of fiction.

Luminarium
A nice anthology, featuring the work and biography of literary figures from the Medieval, Renaissance, and 17th Century.

Names

BehindTheName.com
"The etymology and history of first names". A look at the origins and meanings of first names, perhaps including yours. Fun and educational.

Names.org
"The site offers name origins, statistics and popularity rankings for people names. You can search and compare the most popular names, find trending names and review various list of names by origin, region, decade and more."

Poetry

My Own Poem, from Tiffany
A poignant poem about turning one's life around through effort and determination.

Sandee's Poetry in Motion
Reflections for the New Year. (A short poetic story and photograph)

Words

Internet Anagram Server
Quick and cute diversion. Just type in a word or phrase and out pops a long list of anagrams. (Wordsmith)

Roget's Internet Thesaurus
I looked up "hard drive" in the search window, and one of the words it responded with was "painfulness"! Nicely presented, if not quite up-to-date.

WWWebster On-Line
The final word in spelling. Easy to use on-line dictionary & thesaurus from Merriam-Webster.

What are Palindromes?
Click on the link to find out.

Words of Wisdom
Great words of advice for young people. This "graduation speech" was (incorrectly) purported to be from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Sure gets a lot of visits thanks to StumbleUpon! -g-

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