Anne Curzan
Contributor, That’s What They SayAnne Curzan is the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. She also holds faculty appointments in the Department of Linguistics and the School of Education.
As an expert in the history of the English language, Anne describes herself as a fount of random linguistic information about how English works and how it got to be that way. She received the University’s Henry Russel Award for outstanding research and teaching in 2007, as well as the Faculty Recognition Award in 2009 and the 2012 John Dewey Award for undergraduate teaching.
Anne has published multiple books and dozens of articles on the history of the English language (from medieval to modern), language and gender, and pedagogy. Her newest book is Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History (2014). She has also created three audio/video courses for The Great Courses, including “The Secret Life of Words” and “English Grammar Boot Camp.”
When she is not tracking down new slang or other changes in the language, Anne can be found running around Ann Arbor, swimming in pools both indoor and out, and now doing yoga (in hopes that she can keep running for a few more years to come).
-
The way some people use "resonate" doesn't resonate with all of our listeners. -
If we’re involved in a hurry-scurry retreat or a harum-scarum dash, perhaps things are also helter-skelter.
-
If you’re not up to snuff, you’re not up to scratch and maybe you don’t get a cigar.
-
This week’s question has not been a recurring one, by which we mean it has occurred once and not reoccurred.
-
If it seems unlikely that crotchety people are related, at least etymologically, to those who do crochet, stay tuned.
-
Given how much we’re talking about AI right now, it’s no surprise that AI-related words featured prominently in this year’s word of the year vote.
-
Sometimes we don’t realize that we’re using a trademarked term differently from those around us.
-
We can pepper our food or pepper our speech or, if the mood strikes us, we can be peppy in a pep rally kind of way.
-
‘Tis the season to talk about "‘tis" and "‘twas" and, while we’re at it, "hap."
-
If you’re too big for your britches, maybe you’re all mouth and trousers.
