Selfie, Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year

The onset of social media and eager media sharing, people have started to share almost anything at all: from clothes, shoes, accessories to even a picture they take of themselves.

Thus came about the term, "selfie."

Selfie lands as the word of the year by Oxford Dictionary. 

Selfie – "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" {Source}

Over at Refinery29, they featured the first Instagra selfie. Check out the story HERE.  

Loose v Lose

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My heart breaks as soon as I saw the word "loose" in this image. It ruins a beautiful message. 

Loose and Lose are two words that are often misused. 

According to Dictionary.com:

loose[loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb, loosed, loos·ing.
adjective
1. free or released from fastening or attachment: a loose end.
2. free from anything that binds or restrains; unfettered: loose cats prowling around in alleyways at night.
3. uncombined, as a chemical element.
4. not bound together: to wear one's hair loose.
5. not put up in a package or other container: loose mushrooms. 

lose[looz] verb, lost, los·ing.
verb (used with object)
1. to come to be without (something in one's possession or care), through accident, theft, etc., so that there is little or no prospect of recovery: I'm sure I've merely misplaced my hat, not lost it.
2. to fail inadvertently to retain (something) in such a way that it cannot be immediately recovered: I just lost a dime under this sofa.
3. to suffer the deprivation of: to lose one's job; to lose one's life.
4. to be bereaved of by death: to lose a sister.
5. to fail to keep, preserve, or maintain: to lose one's balance; to lose one's figure. 

The word there should be LOSE. 

The message should read:

Stop worrying about 

what you have to

lose and start

focusing on what you

have to gain.

Online Conference on Language Teaching

Online Conference 2013 The Macmillan Online Conference is back – and it's bigger than ever before! Join thousands of ELT teachers for a week of inspiring events, all completely free to attend from the comfort of your own sofa, from Monday 11th to Friday 15th November. You'll find a vast range of talks, covering all key areas of English language teaching and hosted by experts such as Scott Thornbury, Sam McCarter, Dave Spencer, Ceri Jones, Nik Peachey – and many others! Plus, our interactive Google Hangouts will allow you to share your experiences with colleagues from all over the world. Sounds unmissable? Then make sure to check out the full agenda and register to attend – it only takes one click. We look forward to seeing you there!

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20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes

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Effective Words to Use In Meetings

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We all know that meetings can be toxic, especially if you don't use Parliamentary procedure. You hold a meeting and nothing gets done or decided upon. Such a waste of time!

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) online edition came out with an article, titled To Master Your Next Meeting, Just Say ‘Yeah.’ Other effective words mentioned in the article are ‘give,’ ‘start,’ and ‘discuss.’ Read more...

These words are more of listening to what the other person has to say. Interesting! 

English Usage: Can't Help...

Usage : Can't help loving...

I always use the form: I can't help loving..., can't help thinking..., can't help falling...

But I often hear people say, "I can't help but love you." "I can't help but think of you."

So, I asked which form is correct?

Dictionary.com comes to the rescue:

Idioms & Phrases
can't help
Also, can't help but or  cannot but :  Be unable to do otherwise.
For example:

1. I can't help thinking that the keys will turn up eventually. 

1. He couldn't help but believe he would pass the entrance exam.

1. I cannot but applaud his efforts. 

The first of these phrases, can't help, is always followed by a present participle whereas the others take an infinitive. [c. 1700] 

Word of the Day: Isolato

From Dictionary.com:

isolato \ahy-suh-LEY-toh\ , noun:  
a person who is spiritually isolated from or out of sympathy with his or her times or society.
Also, in the years since the events you are investigating, my life has been that of an isolato, a shepherd on a mountaintop, situated as far from so-called civilization as possible, and it has made me unnaturally brusque and awkward.
-- Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, 1998
There is, of course, Paul's unremitting aloneness: he is in every sense an isolato, and if this state is elicited by his impertinence and his refusal to conform, it is brought about as well by the inability of all those around him to perceive either his uniqueness or his pain.
-- Philip Stevick, The American Short Story, 1984
The most predictable Justices now on the Court, Antonin Scalia and Thomas, seem brooding isolatoes, openly contemptuous of the doctrinal laxness of their brethren.
-- Louis Menand, "Decisions, Decisions," The New Yorker, July 11, 2005
Isolato was popularized by Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. The word comes through Italian from the Latin word insulātus meaning "made into an island."

Source

Check out Emotionary

I stumbled upon this blog, Emotionary through David Kanigan. It says:

The Emotionary is a blog established for the creation of “words that don’t exist for feelings that do.”  The Emotolution began on May 15, 2013.  The Emotionary can be found on Tumblr and on Twitter.

So do you have an emotion that you don't have a word for? Check out Emotionary! :D

The Uses of While

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My interest in the conjunction while got picked when I saw a sign on SM Department Stores, which goes, "Pay your bills while shopping."

When I read that line, I had to look up the word "while" again. I know that while connotes simultaneous action. This means that I am paying bills and shopping at the same time, which is highly improbable to do.

Here's what I learned (again) from Dictionary.com about the uses of the conjunction "while."

1. during or in the time that.
2. throughout the time that; as long as.
3. even though; although: While she appreciated the honor, she could not accept the position.
4. at the same time that (showing an analogous or corresponding action): The floor was strewn with books, while magazines covered the tables.

That SM line is correct after all. :D

Trivia on the Word, "Serendipity"

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28 January 

It was on this day in 1754 that the word "serendipity" was first coined. It's defined by Merriam-Webster as "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for." It was recently listed by a U.K. translation company as one of the English language's 10 most difficult words to translate. Other words to make their list include plenipotentiary, gobbledegook, poppycock, whimsy, spam, and kitsch.

"Serendipity" was first used by parliament member and writer Horace Walpole in a letter that he wrote to an English friend who was spending time in Italy. In the letter to his friend written on this day in 1754, Walpole wrote that he came up with the word after a fairy tale he once read, called "The Three Princes of Serendip," explaining, "as their Highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of." The three princes of Serendip hail from modern-day Sri Lanka. "Serendip" is the Persian word for the island nation off the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka.

The invention of many wonderful things have been attributed to "serendipity," including Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Charles Goodyear's vulcanization of rubber, inkjet printers, Silly Putty, the Slinky, and chocolate chip cookies.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after he left for vacation without disinfecting some of his petri dishes filled with bacteria cultures; when he got back to his lab, he found that the penicillium mold had killed the bacteria.

Viagra had been developed to treat hypertension and angina pectoris; it didn't do such a good job at these things, researchers found during the first phase of clinical trials, but it was good for something else.

The principles of radioactivity, X-rays, and infrared radiation were all found when researchers were looking for something else.

Julius Comroe said, "Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter."

Wiktionary lists serendipity's antonyms as "Murphy's law" and "perfect storm."

Source

The Semi-Colon

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Two interesting takes on the semicolon, read on:

How to use a semicolon
The Great Semicolon Debate