Posts tagged as:

Language

Less Is More? Or Not?

by Jeff Puthuff on December 20, 2009 · 3 comments

in Grammar, Language

Is a temperature of -70° C less or more than -80° C? I ask because of something I read in a news story about the mountain range under the Antarctic ice sheets. The story reads, “Conditions are brutal; temperatures can go down to more than -80° C.”

Could they go down to -85°C? (Yes.) Then would not that be less hot than -80°C, and, therefore, should not that sentence read “temperatures can go down to less than -80°C”?

{ 3 comments }

Say Goodbye to "Squeeze", "Guts", "Stick" and "Bad"

by Jeff Puthuff on April 21, 2009 · 0 comments

in Language

According to researchers at Reading University, the words “squeeze”, “guts”, “stick” and “bad” are most likely the first to become extinct in the evolution of English. “Their computer model analyses the rate of change of words in English and the languages that share a common heritage,” reports BBC News. The same team has identified “I”, “we”, “two” and “three” as the English language’s oldest words.
Interesting . . .

{ 0 comments }