Our Word Maven Looks for Lost Words

Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, talks about “lost” words—words that once had a literal meaning but are now used only in their metaphorical senses, like “masthead” and “loophole”.

She’ll also answer questions about language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of O’Conner’s book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, is available in paperback, as is  Origins of the Specious, written with Stewart Kellerman.