


pluralistic.net2mo ago






The article explores the origins and nature of Japanese loanwords (gairaigo), explaining how Japanese has incorporated words from various languages throughout history. It highlights Portuguese loanwords from the 16th century as an example, noting that while most loanwords come fr
The article appears to be a satirical piece from The Onion about a medieval scribe who repeatedly forgets the grammatical rule for distinguishing between 'whence' (from where) and 'whither' (to where). The content suggests a humorous take on historical language usage and the chal


The article explores the historical etymology of the term "computer," tracing its origins to human beings who performed complex calculations before the advent of electronic machines. It examines how the word originally referred to people who computed mathematical problems, particularly in contexts like the British East India Company where "computers" were hu


A satirical proclamation defending the em-dash (—) against modern prejudice, particularly the unfair association of this punctuation mark with AI-generated text. The piece argues that the em-dash is a legitimate and elegant tool of English prose that predates computers by centuries, and that blaming the punctuation for its misuse by large language models is
