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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Even though "mug shots" do not involve drinking or "mugs" in that sense, we can draw a historical connection between these two mugs. -
From campfire wood to troubleshooting, English usage provides plenty of curiosities for another lightning round.
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Only some English speakers have grammars that allow them to say “We might could make that better” or “We might should eat before the movie.”
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When you have a language podcast, you come across a lot of usages that make you think, “I would never say that.” A little research and a few contextual examples later, you might just change your mind.
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Mountains may be peaked, collars may be peaked, but when we’re sick, we’re not “peaked” but “peak-ed.”
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This is a bespoke segment of That’s What They Say that focuses on “bespoke.”
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Listeners write to us regularly with their language peeves, which we love. Sometimes they call these peeves their "pet peeves." -
When we inquire about something, it doesn’t really matter if we "inquire" or "enquire." However, with the verb "insure," it matters if we "insure" or "ensure."
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With the words "disinterested" and "uninterested," it’s not that a distinction has been lost, but rather that a distinction has been intentionally created.
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If something is crummy, then we could also call it lousy, which gives us a clue about how crummy came to mean what it means.
