Stories by This Author
Lingua Franca
Allan Metcalf reports the latest news from the author of the acclaimed Word by Word.
Lingua Franca
Allan Metcalf relishes a wide menu of origin stories about food and drink in the current issue of a scholarly journal on etymology that has never gone online.
Lingua Franca
Both shocked their adversaries, Jackson by his lack of formal education, Trump by his indifference to cultivated talk. Allan Metcalf looks for lessons in that history on Election Day.
Lingua Franca
An immense group of people is walking across Mexico, drawing our attention as it draws ever closer. Allan Metcalf notes the power of caravan to evoke visions.
Lingua Franca
Allan Metcalf contemplates candidates for 2018’s Word of the Year (or phrase, as in some years). “Shouting head,” anyone? “Tweetstorm”?
Lingua Franca
Allan Metcalf examines the flexibility of 60 seconds.
Lingua Franca
Transparently both selfish and selfless, it is an almost perfect way to express the millennial attitude, says Allan Metcalf.
Lingua Franca
From the etymologist Gerald Cohen, Allan Metcalf learns why to stay out of range of the kibosh.
Lingua Franca
Everyone understands their own language a little differently. Could that assumption lead us to the anonymous White House blogger? Allan Metcalf explains why not.
Lingua Franca
The linguist Allan Metcalf looks for clues to the author of the New York Times column on the administration’s anti-Trump cabal.