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    <title><![CDATA[The Word Guy - ArcaMax Publishing]]></title>
	<link>https://www.arcamax.com//knowledge/thewordguy/rss</link>
	<description><![CDATA[The Word Guy News Feed]]></description>
	<language>en-us</language>
	<copyright>Copyright 2026 ArcaMax Publishing</copyright>
	
	
	
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		<title><![CDATA[Time for Some 'Couples' Counseling]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

"A couple more inches of snow came at us."

"In his paper, a couple factors held him back."

Those are just a couple (of) examples of killing the "of" after the word
"couple." But don't worry; the "of"-icide detectives are on the case,
and they'...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4057544</link>
 
    <pubDate>Apr/01/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Can't Do It By Yourself? Try Plan 'Bee']]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

And now some questions about etymology ... or should I say entomology?

Q: I know you must be as busy as a bee at apple blossom time, but my
13-year-old grandson, Lucas, would like to know the origin of "spelling
bee." -- Luke McEntire, ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4050652</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/25/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA['Verban Legends' Clog Arteries of the Internet]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

You've probably encountered a rather macabre treatise titled "Life in
the 1500s," a ghastly goulash of completely false etymologies that's
been sludging through the arteries of the Internet for decades.

I suppose there's no harm in chuckling at...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4044196</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/18/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Subjects and Verbs Agree to Disagree]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Politics are so polarized these days -- or should that be politics IS so
polarized? -- that it's hard to reach an agreement on anything. Don't
believe me? Try this quiz on subject-verb agreement:

No. 1: Bad weather is one of the many problems ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4036560</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/11/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Fear and Loathing in Las Verbiage]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

A few years back, a newspaper story reported that Janet Jackson "was
loathe to admit" her loss of a role in an upcoming movie. Jackson's
infamous "wardrobe malfunction" is now a distant mammary, but this
misuse of "loathe" cannot be covered up.
...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4029306</link>
 
    <pubDate>Mar/04/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Hi-Yo, 'Silver Bullet'!]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

"AI Fires Silver Bullet for Creating New Life," read a recent newspaper
headline. The story below it reported that molecular scientists are
using AI to design new organisms that destroy lethal bacteria such as
<i>Escherichia coli.</i>

Let's ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4021949</link>
 
    <pubDate>Feb/25/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Misdirection Leads to Sentence 'Path'ology]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

What makes these sentences foul?

The garbage dump smells foul the air.

The basketball player fouled out of anger.

The witch stated her foul intentions were justified.

Each sentence includes phrasing that momentarily misleads or confuses
the ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4014383</link>
 
    <pubDate>Feb/18/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[One Man's 'Meat' Is Another Man's Boysenberry]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Imagine a bizarre world where vegetarians eat meat, corpses come alive,
a ceiling is a wall and a deer is a mouse.

This may seem like a 1950s horror flick based on "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland," but it actually represents something even ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4008695</link>
 
    <pubDate>Feb/11/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA['Safe Haven' Ain't Misbehavin']]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

"Isn't the expression 'safe haven' redundant?" asks Anthony Cannella of
New Britain, Conn. "Isn't a haven by its very nature safe?"

Condemning "safe haven" as a redundancy has long provided a safe haven
for beleaguered language commentators. ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-4001492</link>
 
    <pubDate>Feb/04/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Chancellors of the Lex Checker]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

The late Supreme Court Justices Harry Blackmun and Antonin Scalia often
clashed on matters of law. But they shared a loathing for jargon and
overused terms.

Blackmun's letters and papers reveal that the two jurists kept an
"Enemies List" of ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-3994020</link>
 
    <pubDate>Jan/28/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Doing a 180 on the Linguistic Highway]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

If you're a rate adjuster at my auto insurance company, please skip the
following paragraph.

One winter night when I was 22 years old, I was driving on an icy
Massachusetts road when my car spun around 180 degrees. This came as a
surprise to me...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-3988507</link>
 
    <pubDate>Jan/21/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[The Bird Is the Word?]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

The bird feeder in my backyard has been aflutter this winter with birds
and words.

First to arrive each morning are the chickadees. In "Walden," Henry
David Thoreau tells us how these perky, personable pals enjoyed
alighting on the arm of his ...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-3981270</link>
 
    <pubDate>Jan/14/2026</pubDate>
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		<title><![CDATA[Shrewdly, These Words Have Improved Their Meanings]]></title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Five hundred years ago, if I had called one of my students "a shrewd lad
with dogged ambition," he might have left the classroom in tears.

Back in 1526, "shrewd" meant hurtful, a "lad" was a lowly servant,
"dogged" meant malicious, and "...<br /><br /><hr size="1" />]]></description>
		<link>https://www.arcamax.com/thewordguy/s-3973861</link>
 
    <pubDate>Jan/07/2026</pubDate>
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	  <title><![CDATA[More from The Word Guy on ArcaMax »]]></title>
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