Ben Zimmer

Ben Zimmer is a linguist, lexicographer, and all-around word nut. He is the language columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a contributing writer for the Atlantic.

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Recently by Ben Zimmer

Showing 21–40 of 61

Why Do Some People Call Rock-Paper-Scissors Roshambo?

May 17, 2016 11:33 AM

How Hamilton Centers the Power and Pleasure of Language

May 10, 2016 8:30 AM

Red Herring: A Wild Goose Chase That Stinks From Fish

April 19, 2016 11:25 AM

Primeval Profanity

March 30, 2016 12:25 PM

Take It With a Grain of Salt! But Why a Single Grain? And Why Salt?

March 08, 2016 11:08 AM

The Trumpian Conditional

Feb 22, 2016 1:14 PM

Studies in Sweary Syntax

Feb 15, 2016 2:27 PM

The Origins of In Cahoots: Four Theories

Jan 11, 2016 11:55 AM

Did Bob Dylan Pioneer the Phrase “Can’t Even” Back in 1966?

Dec 29, 2015 4:08 PM

So You Just Got Eighty-Sixed From a Bar. Why That Number?

Dec 14, 2015 9:23 AM

Woody Guthrie’s Folk Etymology. It’s a Hootenanny!

Nov 16, 2015 12:05 PM

A Drone, a Bell, and a Suffix. It’s a Real Humdinger!

Oct 19, 2015 10:47 AM

Yogi Berra Turned Linguistic Vice Into Virtue With His Cockeyed Tautologies

Sept 23, 2015 6:17 PM

An Ambitious Enterprise, Quixotic and Unavailing

Sept 21, 2015 9:46 AM

Assessing Jeb Bush’s Bilingualism

Aug 05, 2015 2:46 PM

A Non-French Speaker Won the French Language Scrabble Championship. How Is That Possible?

Aug 05, 2015 10:35 AM

Don't Be a Clown! Guess This Word With Vaudevillian Roots.

June 29, 2015 2:52 PM

Did Bill Simmons Get Fired for “Testicular Fortitude”?

May 11, 2015 10:16 AM

How Stuart Scott Made Booyah His Own

Jan 05, 2015 12:41 PM

Can John Leguizamo Put a Pretty Face on Fugly?

Nov 07, 2014 1:58 PM