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).
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There are lots of cards we can still play now, but we’ve lost some good ones too. -
If "hunky dory" means the same thing as "right as rain," then we face the question of how right rain is.
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While we may know highfalutin language when we hear it, we don't all agree about how to spell "highfalutin" or where it comes from.
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We exchange scuttlebutt at the proverbial water cooler, and there's an etymological clue in that.
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The little clock we wear on our wrist could be called a clock. Instead, it has long had its own term, being called a watch instead.
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Sometimes new slang jumps out in front of you, waving its hands, or thumbs, so that you can’t help but notice it. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you.
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We can count fathoms when we’re measuring things. We can also metaphorically fathom or not fathom things.
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This is a bespoke segment of That’s What They Say that focuses on “bespoke.”
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If it’s up your alley, it might also be up your street. And perhaps it’s down rather than up.
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You say "lieutenant," I say “leftenant” but let’s not call the whole thing off.
