There are countless adorable names for diminutive animals, including “bunny,” “kitty,” “puppy,” and “pony.” But why is “pony” so different from “horse,” and where did it come from?
After “mama” and “dada,” names for animals rank near the top of the list of vocabulary words for babies. We love to ask toddlers, “What sound does a kitten make?” And people of all ages cry with delight when they see cows, horses, and sheep in fields from the car. This animal fascination isn’t hard to understand, but what’s less clear is the connection between the names for some of our favorite animals and their juvenile or diminutive forms.
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Take “horse” and the corresponding “pony” — the two words don’t appear to have any etymology in common, so what’s the relation? We can trace “pony” back to pony, the Scottish word to describe a very small horse, which has been in use since the mid-17th century. At the time, the specific definition of powny was “a horse less than 13 hands tall.” It likely came from a (now-obsolete) French word, poulenet, that had roughly the same meaning: “little foal.” “Foal” is the technical term for a horse younger than 1 year old (“filly” is specifically a young female horse), but among children it’s common to use the word “pony” instead. The modern definition of “pony” is a horse of a small breed that is less than 58 inches (14 1/2 hands) tall at the shoulder.
The usage of pony as an indicator of something smaller than usual also has spilled over into barware. The pony glass comes in two styles: a quarter-pint of beer or a 1-ounce pour (sometimes called a cordial glass). ”Pony keg” is slang for a quarter-barrel keg, a size popular with homebrewers.
The next time you point out animals on a road trip, take note of the size. Is that horse shorter than 5 feet? You’ve spotted a pony.
Your extra-virgin olive oil doesn’t need to be reserved for over-the-top meals or especially dramatic recipes. With olive oil, the extra-ness of “extra-virgin” describes the production process — any oil that’s obtained from the fruit of olive trees is an olive oil, but what differentiates an extra-virgin olive oil from a virgin olive oil, or just plain olive oil, is that EVOO is unrefined. This means it hasn’t been processed with chemicals or heat. An unrefined extra-virgin olive oil will retain high levels of oleic acid, which is what gives the oil its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, along with its rich golden color and distinctive peppery flavor.
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Olive oil isn’t the only food that gets a special adjective. “Prime,” as a descriptor for beef, comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There are eight grades of beef given by the regulatory agency, the top three of which — “prime,” “choice,” and “select” — are likely the most recognizable to American grocery shoppers. The grade is assigned based on a combination of marbling and maturity of the cow, and prime beef is the highest quality in terms of tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. (“Marbling” describes the flecks of fat within the meat that give it flavor and tenderness.)
As we move over to the dairy aisle, what makes cream “heavy,” as opposed to just cream? It has to do with fat content. Heavy cream is homogenized, meaning the fat it contains is emulsified and mixed well into the milk, giving it a thick consistency. Manufacturers add specific proportions of milk fat to the milk, and heavy cream contains no less than 36% milk fat.Take a stroll around the grocery store and you’ll find plenty of items with their own designated adjectives. These are not just for show. They usually have a backstory related to the production, farming, or regulation involved in getting that item to the shelves.
Featured image credit: Liudmila Chernetska/ iStock
This quibble may be a bit pedantic, but we’re of the opinion that words matter. Stop and think about whether what you’re experiencing is the exact opposite of what was expected to happen. If it is, then that’s irony.
As Inigo Montoya once famously declared, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The truth is that it’s not “inconceivable” for even the most devout grammarians to mess up on occasion. Sometimes you may think you know what a word means, but its true definition is entirely different. One common example is the word “ironic.” This word is mistakenly thrown around all the time, but thankfully, it’s an easy lexical problem to fix.
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Let’s begin by examining the meaning of the word “irony.” Merriam-Webster defines it as “the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning,” and notes that it’s also commonly used in a “humorous or sardonic literary style.” There are a few different types of irony — for instance, a fire station burning down is an example of situational irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that a character does not. Verbal irony involves using words in an opposing way to their true meaning; one example of this is suggesting that a blizzard is the perfect time to go for a dip in the pool.
But people mess up the use of the word “irony” — and thus “ironic” — far too often. One of the most common pitfalls is using the word to describe an unfortunate event, such as wearing the same outfit as someone to a social function. If you’re still not sure what this means, look no further than Alanis Morissette’s 1996 hit song “Ironic,” which is notorious for its grammatically incorrect lyrics. (To be clear: Rain on your wedding day might be considered a bad omen, but it’s not ironic.)
This quibble may be a bit pedantic, but we’re of the opinion that words matter. Stop and think about whether what you’re experiencing is the exact opposite of what was expected to happen. If it is, then that’s irony. If it’s just an event that happened by chance, use “coincidental” instead.
We’ve got the Silent Generation to Gen Alpha, but these terms didn’t come out of thin air. Let’s take a look at how they were adopted to be used as global shorthand for everyone born within certain years.
Age is just a number, but it’s also the single factor that determines which generation you fall into. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — all that matters is the year you were born. Centenarians, those born between 1901 and 1924, are members of the Greatest Generation. They are followed by the Silent Generation (1925 to 1945), baby boomers (1946 to 1964), Generation X (1965 to 1980), millennials/Gen Y (1981 to 1996), Gen Z (1997 to 2012), and the current cohort being born, Generation Alpha. These terms didn’t come out of thin air, so let’s take a look at how they were adopted to be used as global shorthand for everyone born within certain years. (Now that’s a successful marketing campaign.)
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The term “Greatest Generation” was adopted for those born in the first quarter of the 20th century, who lived through the Great Depression and later were critical in helping to win World War II. Members of the Silent Generation likely earned their name for their tendency to be more content to live quiet private lives than to speak out against the government and authority. Baby boomers were named for the skyrocketing birth rates in the years after World War II, attributed to positive feelings and economic prosperity.
Then come Generations X, Y, Z, and Alpha. The term “Generation X” was coined in a 1987 article for Vancouver Magazine by novelist Douglas Coupland, who used the “X” to denote the group’s apathetic societal views. Generation Y followed, though members of this group are now known as millennials. The term “millennial” was coined in a groundbreaking sociological text called Generations, by William Strauss and Neil Howe. While written in 1991, the book used the term “millennial” to refer to the fact that many people born during this generation would reach adulthood around the turn of the new millennium. Generation Z’s name, meanwhile, largely has to do with the fact that “Z” comes after “Y” in the alphabet. The term “zoomer” has been tossed around (calling back to the baby boomers), but that moniker doesn’t seem to have lasting power. Most recently, “Generation Alpha” was coined by sociologist Mark McCrindle to describe a “new, positive beginning.” The last year of Gen Alpha’s birth is 2025, so if the naming patterns hold, we might see the first members of Generation Beta in 2025.
One letter makes all the difference with the terms “with regard” and “with regards.” That “s” at the end changes the meaning, and determines how you should use each expression.
Sometimes one little letter can completely change the meaning of a phrase. For example, a “meet and greet” with your favorite author is a whole lot more vegan-friendly than when the local butcher holds a “meat and greet.”
One letter also makes all the difference when it comes to the terms “with regard” and “with regards.” That tiny “s” at the end not only changes the meaning, but also determines how you should use each expression. Let’s take a look at the differences.
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“Regard” (without the “s”) is a homophone with multiple meanings. When used as a verb with an object, it means “to consider or think of (someone or something) in a specified way.” When used as a verb without an object, it simply means “to pay attention.” “Regard” can also be used as a noun that refers to a particular aspect of something, as in, “He was extremely detailed about his work in that regard.” “Regards” (with the “s”) is far more simple in its intention, and is generally only used to convey “best wishes.” (Just remember chorus singers belting out, “Give my regards to Broadway,” if you forget the difference.)
There is one specific instance, however, where things can get a bit jumbled. Generally, if you’re trying to express concerns about a specific topic, the correct phrase would be “in/with regard to.” However, a less common, yet technically correct usage would be “as regards.” This one little switch is probably the reason that people get confused about when to use the “s” and when to drop it.
The easiest way to remember which phrase is needed is to consider the context. The phrase “with regard to” mostly pops up in business or professional contexts, while “with regards” is used if you’re signing off at the end of a get-well card or thank-you note. Keep those guidelines in mind and you’ll never mix up the two phrases again.
One of the trickiest (and most easily forgotten) lessons seems to be the difference between “lay” and “lie” and when it’s appropriate to use one over the other.
When you’re feeling tired, sometimes you just need to lay down. Or wait — is it lie down? Grammar can be confusing, but don’t fret: You’re not the only person who is fuzzy on the details of grade-school English class. One of the trickiest (and most easily forgotten) lessons seems to be the difference between “lay” and “lie” and when it’s appropriate to use one over the other. To clarify, in this context, “lie” doesn’t mean “to fib” — we’re talking exclusively about the placement meaning of the verb.
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“Lay” and “lie” are mixed up more frequently than identical twins, as both words refer to people or objects positioned horizontally on a surface. But it’s actually quite easy to tell the two words apart — at least in the present tense. The past tense, however, is where things get tricky. Here are a few easy tips to help you differentiate between the two words.
“Lay” is a transitive verb, and “transitive” refers to objects that are being acted upon. So, if you’re in the act of putting down a book before going to sleep, you’d say, “I lay the book on the nightstand,” because you’re performing an action on the book. In the past tense, you would say, “I laid the book on the nightstand.”
Intransitive verbs such as “lie” refer to things acting of their own volition — such as humans. (Here’s a quick memory tip: Only a person can lie on a bed and tell a lie.) An appropriate use here would be, “I lie on the grass in my yard.” But this is where things get even more confusing — the past tense of “lie” is “lay.” So, if you were sitting in the grass hours ago, you’d say, “I lay in my yard.”
As for that nap conundrum? It’s “I’m going to lie down,” but “I lay down for a nap earlier.”
Do You Follow This Digital Communication Etiquette?
Communication etiquette has changed with the rise of the digital world. Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes during the last 30 years in digital communication, including ALL CAPS, extra exclamation points!!!!!!, and a lack of punctuation
For better or worse, communication etiquette has changed with the rise of the digital world. Many experts point to the release of Microsoft Windows 95 in the mid-1990s as the turning point for this age of digital communication. It was touted as the first computer operating system for regular people — with it, anyone could operate a computer and communicate with others. Thus, an entirely new lexicon was born with its own etiquette, faux pas, and best practices. Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes during the last 30 years in digital communication. Do you follow these unspoken etiquette rules?
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ALL CAPS
The practice of writing in all caps is not new. According to typography and graphic communication professor Paul Luna of the University of Reading (U.K.), humans have used capital letters to express pomp and circumstance since ancient times. Roman emperors, for example, requested monuments to be inscribed in all capital letters.
Later, all-caps writing was used for emphasis in early print advertising. Today, though, it’s widely understood in the digital lexicon to mean shouting. In a 1984 message board, a few users explained “using CAPITAL LETTERS to make words look ‘louder’” noting, “if it’s in caps i’m trying to YELL!”
A 2006 campaign to remove the caps lock key from standard keyboards was endorsed by the likes of Wired and the Chicago Tribune, but it never took off (as you’ll notice from the caps-filled rants that persist across social media). Nevertheless, monitoring your capital-letter usage remains a guideline in digital communications. And it’s not just for politeness’ sake. According to research by typography and printing expert Colin Wheildont, headlines in all capital letters are up to 37% less legible than those set in lowercase letters.
Double Texting
In previous decades (and centuries), sending someone multiple letters, initiating numerous phone calls, and sending a flurry of emails about the same topic (without a response) suggested a lack of communication skills. Some people feel similarly about double texting (sending a second text before receiving a reply), but it’s open to interpretation. The newest form of written communication is more concise than any of its predecessors. Could this be why we feel compelled to send multiple short texts instead of one long one?
According to a survey by the dating app Hinge, waiting four hours before sending a double text to a prospective partner is ideal, but this depends on the relationship with the person you’re texting. For a new relationship, a double text can come off as pushy, but when talking to old friends or close family, it’s often viewed as simply an extension of your previous thought — or a friendly reminder for them to respond to you. Double, triple, and quadruple texts are normal in the latter scenario.
With unlimited space available in a messaging app, some folks prefer to send long messages with all their thoughts in one missive. Others (often those who came up in the limited-character text days) send a new message for each sentence. Neither method is necessarily impolite or incorrect, but if your friend has a particular way they prefer to receive alerts, they might let you know. That’s part of digital etiquette as well — everyone is responsible for setting their alerts and do-not-disturb windows for their own needs.
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Dropping Periods
Punctuation rules have fallen to the wayside during the digital age, and we no longer need a subject-verb-object to form a sentence when communicating via text. Sentence fragments and one-word replies are perfectly acceptable. Take this texting conversation, for example:
Are you on your way
Coming
👍
The response is a sentence fragment, there’s no period at the end of it, and the retort is a single thumbs-up emoji. Yet the exchange is completely clear and no one bats an eye (except perhaps an English teacher). Periods are generally only used at the end of sentences when there are multiple sentences in a single text; using one at the end of a single sentence is akin to slapping someone in the face. (OK, it’s not quite that dramatic, but it is understood to be rude and abrupt.)
Texting Acronyms and Abbreviations
Trillions of text messages have been sent since cellular texting debuted in 1992, and more abbreviations and acronyms spawn from this form of communication every day. Shortening words and phrases was essential to early texting because most cellphones had a 160-character limit per message. Now, shortening your thoughts is the norm, and it’s almost passé to write some terms out in full, such as “laughing out loud” versus “LOL” and “to be honest” versus “TBH.” Some abbreviations are actually more popular than the full words, including “ppl” versus “people” and “ur” versus “you’re.”
However, it’s still best practice to keep readability at the top of mind. Confusing, multiuse, and obscure abbreviations and acronyms can lead to crossed wires, so pay attention to context and your audience. For example, “IG” can mean “I guess” or “Instagram.” When in doubt, don’t use a shortener if you aren’t sure your audience will know what it represents.
Ellipses…
Ah, the ellipsis … Some younger texters fear it, while others revel in it (including many Gen Xers). For those who use it frequently, it replaces other types of punctuation — this is likely a holdover from typing days, when a dot-dot-dot would be a more efficient way to start a new thought than a hard return to a new line.
Grammatically, an ellipsis represents the omission of a word or phrase, or indicates that there is more to be said. It’s the latter usage that gives some people the feeling that an ellipsis implies a negative connotation. There’s something being left out on purpose, or something bad is coming. For example, “Let’s meet up later…” might just be an invitation to hang out, or it could be read as a precursor to receiving bad news.
Just as with capital letters, pay attention to your ellipses usage. To some, “OK…” means the same thing as “OK” (sans punctuation), but to others, those three dots contain a world of nuance. This can cause misunderstandings between generations, so it’s important to remember who your audience is.
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Exclamation Points!
Tone is easily misconstrued over digital communication, but the exclamation point mitigates this. To end a sentence on a positive note, many people add an exclamation point. An exclamation point turns “sounds good” into “sounds good!”
While it’s widely used today, the exact origin of the exclamation point is unknown. One theory indicates that it’s derived from Latin, where an exclamation of joy was written with an uppercase “I” above an “O.” In 1970, it gained a place on the keyboard; before this, it was styled with an apostrophe over a period. Over the last three decades of digital typing, its meaning has transformed. Exclamation points rule digital communication as an indicator of politeness or good intentions. In regular prose, the punctuation might indicate any sort of heightened emotion — anger, excitement, and fear included. But that’s now the domain of ALL CAPS in text. Exclamation points are by and large indicators of goodwill. Even using two (or more) exclamation marks conveys a generally positive connotation. You’re not yelling — you’re just being extra solicitous!!
Featured image credit: Tero Vesalainen/ Shutterstock
Buying a carton of extra-large versus jumbo eggs doesn’t just change the price — it also can affect the way your recipe turns out. What do these descriptive words mean for your scramble?
If a recipe calls for large eggs, that’s not a guesstimate — it refers to a specific size designation of egg. Eggs are classified in a range of sizes, from “peewee” to “jumbo.” These size variations have to do with the chicken laying the egg. In general, the older the chicken, the larger the egg. Chickens can lay eggs from about 18 weeks old, albeit very infrequently. Peewee eggs come from extremely young chickens, whereas jumbo eggs (weighing 2.5 ounces or more) come from fully mature, healthy chickens in their prime.
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Other factors that can impact the size of an egg are the weight of the chicken, its diet, and the conditions the chicken lives in. For example, hens exposed to more light before 19 weeks of age will start laying eggs earlier, meaning their eggs will be smaller. Large eggs (about 2 ounces per egg) are what most recipes call for, and large and extra-large eggs (2.25 ounces) are stocked most commonly at grocery stores.
Following size guidelines is important in baking because the size of the egg corresponds to an amount of liquid. A large egg contains about 3.25 tablespoons of liquid, and an extra-large egg is about 4 tablespoons of liquid, so a substitution of four extra-large eggs for four large eggs can drastically change a recipe.
“Soda” and “pop” are the two most common terms for carbonated soft drinks, and strong linguistic indicators of where in the country you call home. Both are correct, but we can tell where you’re from based on what you call your bubbly beverage.
Anyone who’s moved to a different part of the country and used what they thought was a universal slang term, only to have been met with raised eyebrows, is well aware that regional expressions endure. Less obvious, perhaps, is where the reach of one term ends and another begins. Case in point: “soda” and “pop.” These are the two most common terms for carbonated soft drinks, and strong linguistic indicators of where in the country you call home.
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The issue is so persistent that there are statistical projects and linguistic studies devoted to it, with breakdowns revealing that “soda” is the preferred nomenclature in California, Hawaii, Florida, the Southwest, most of the Northeast, and a few parts of the Midwest. “Pop,” meanwhile, is the go-to for pretty much the rest of the upper half of the country, spanning from Ohio in the Midwest to Oregon and Washington on the West Coast.
Then there’s “Coke,” which is what folks in the South call it — even if it isn’t actually Coca-Cola. Upon asking for a Coke at a restaurant, for instance, a Southerner might then be asked, “What kind?” by their server. The appropriate response could be Dr. Pepper, Sprite, root beer, Pepsi, or even Coke itself — a roundabout process, perhaps, but one that seems to work just fine in the South. (The ubiquitousness of the Coke branding is likely because Coca-Cola was invented by an Atlanta pharmacist in the late 1800s, and the global business giant continues to be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.)
To date, more than 400,000 respondents have contributed to Pop vs. Soda’s statistical database by providing their preferred terminology and ZIP code. This has resulted in a surprisingly comprehensive analysis of perhaps the most telling slang divide in the United States. If you have Swiss heritage and would prefer to remain neutral on the issue, you can split the difference and call it “soda pop.”
What Are the Origins of “Curiosity Killed the Cat”?
Every language has its own idioms (phrases whose figurative meanings aren’t always clear from their literal phrasing), and many of those in English are based on animals. What are the origins of “curiosity killed the cat”?
From the fables and fairy tales of centuries past to the animated movies of today, people like learning lessons from animals. You only need to be the least bit familiar with “The Tortoise and the Hare” to know that “slow and steady wins the race,” and it’s common knowledge why astrophysicists borrowed the term “Goldilocks” to describe an ideal area around a star for liquid water to form on a planet. Every language has its own idioms (phrases whose figurative meanings aren’t always clear from their literal phrasing), and many of those in English are based on animals.
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Consider, for instance, a fairly straightforward one: “Curiosity killed the cat.” Anyone who’s had a cat knows that our feline friends love to investigate anything and everything, occasionally to their detriment. The same can be said, per the idiom, of those who fail to mind their business. It was originally phrased as “care killed the cat,” with “care” in this context meaning “worry.” This version was first found in Ben Jonson’s 1598 play Every Man in His Humour: “Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care ‘ll kill a cat, up-tails all, and a louse for the hangman.” The next year, Shakespeare used a similar formulation in Much Ado About Nothing: “What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”
The first known instance of its current form was found in “Aunt Hetty’s Stratagem,” a short story published by Ireland’s Waterford Mirror and Tramore Visiter on October 28, 1868: “They say curiosity killed a cat once.” Since then, the idiom has lasted as folksy advice, and in cultural forms such as Iggy Pop’s song “Curiosity” and Stephen King’s The Shining.
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