Neal Whitman
Neal Whitman is a columnist for the online resource Visual Thesaurus, and an occasional guest writer for the podcast "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing." He teaches ESL composition at The Ohio State University, and blogs at Literal-Minded, where he writes about linguistics from the point of view of a husband and father.
Latest articles by Neal Whitman
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Rainbows and unicorns: A linguistic history
feature It all seems to date back to a 19th-century French book
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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The linguistic trick behind A Good Day to Die Hard
The Explainer Some words and phrases are so nice you don't say them twice
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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A brief history of the phrase 'talking filibuster'
feature It seems to have been coined by the late Sen. Arlen Specter
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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From absentee-vote to zero-tolerate: 26 backformed compound verbs
feature An alphabetical tour of modern verbs that entered the language backwards
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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The delights and frustrations of off-road grammar
feature The rules of English grammar don't always provide a clear A-to-B linguistic route. Be prepared to take some detours.
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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The humble spatula's linguistic origins
feature It's richer than you might imagine
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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A linguistic dissection of our affect/effect problem
feature Almost everyone mixes these two words up at some point. It didn't have to be this way.
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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A linguistic tour of the best libfixes, from -ana to -zilla
feature It's a listacular wordgasm!
By Neal Whitman Last updated
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