Wordorigins.org

7 October:

Mark Liberman over at Language Log has an extensive article on 19th century subject-verb agreement with the subject “the United States.” The issue is more complex than most commentators give it credit for. Liberman also has some insightful comments on the utility and nature of online databases.

Update: 8 October

Liberman adds another post on the topic.

Michael Adams has a superb article on Samuel Johnson’s contributions to lexicography in Humanities.

An interesting post over at Librarything.com on how the economics of electronic publishing might affect libraries.

(If you haven’t checked out LibraryThing, you really should. It’s a really neat concept. You can browse my library here.)

Inside Higher Ed has an interview with Jesse Sheidlower about the latest edition of his book, The F-Word.

Jesse Sheidlower, of the Oxford English Dictionary and author of The F Word (which is out in a new edition) has a piece in Slate on the difficulties in including sexual terms in the dictionary.

Note that women don’t “prong” men, they “peg” them.