Etymology

A Guide sites dealing with the root and development of words.

• Focusing on Words - Vocabulary development and etymology.
• An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology - English words whose origins reach far back.
• Etymologically Speaking - list of some curious word origins.
• Focusing on Words - vocabulary development and etymology.
• Idiom of the Week - McDougal Littell (educational publisher) explains the meaning and origins of many common English-language expressions.
• Martha Barnette's Funwords.com - Formerly LADYFINGERS AND NUN'S TUMMIES. One of America's best etymologists shows how we truly eat our words.
• Mavens' Word of the Day - Random House Word Mavens reveal the mysteries of word and phrase origins.
• Origin of Phrases - investigates how common phrases came to be.
• Pandora's Word Box Desktop Encyclopedic Word Etymology and Mythology - Mythology and etymology notes, comments and reflections.
• Urban Legends Language Page - debunks a number of etymological myths.
• Ye Olde English Sayings - some romantic but dubious and some authentic phrase origins.
• The Word Detective - a master word sleuth tracks down word and phrase origins.
• Wordorigins.org (formerly Dave Wilton's Etymology) - full of folklore and historical lessons.

Language Columns/Online Magazines

• The Discouraging Word - defenders of the English language
• Grammar Lady - this column appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• Loquacious Language - a column devoted to language by high school student Michael Tseng.
• Mondegreens Ripped My Flesh - columnist Jon Carroll on mondegreens (misunderstood phrases and lyrics)
• Take Our Word for It - discover the origins of English words via this weekly webzine.
• Verbatim Magazine - popular magazine devoted to all aspects of the English language.
• The Vocabula Review - examines the state of the English language; published on the third Tuesday of each month.
• Word for Word - Articles on words and phrases by Terry O'Connor from his newspaper and Internet columns.
• Word F u g i t i v e s - an interactive column by The Atlantic Unbound's Barbara Wallraff.
• A Word With You - a daily on-line column, featuring little known facts about well known words and phrases.
• Words & Stuff - a fortnightly column on words and wordplay by Jed Hartman.

Linguistic Links

• Ask a Linguist - a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and get the response of a panel of professional linguists.
• Blackwell Linguistics Resource Center - a very comprehensive site.
• The Eclectic Company - Language & Linguistics - many terrific linguistic links from John Lawler at the U of Mich.
• Linguistic Phenomena/Devices - a list of some of the lesser known linguistic phenomena and devices used in English writing. You actually know what most of these are, you just didn't know what they were called.
• The LINGUIST List - a comprehensive list of linguistic riches.
• Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics - explores the many facets of logology.

Newsgroups

• alt.anagrams - a Newsgroup for anagram aficionados.
• alt.humor.puns - a Newsgroup for punsters.
• alt.usage.english - a Newsgroup for an ongoing discussion on language issues.
• sci.lang - a Newsgroup for the scientific study of language(s).

Puns

• International Save The Puns Foundation - protects the endangered pun.
• Dobe Doinat's Punny Names Archive - the name is the game.
• Preserve the Pun Society - an organization whose members believe a good pun is like a good steak -- a rare medium well done.
• David Gross Entertainment -- Punmaster™ Comics - graphic humour.
• Pun-A-Day
• Puns Galore - Puns, puns, and more puns
• Pun of the Day

Reference

Dictionaries & Thesauri

• Bibliomania - you can find fully searchable copies of your favourite language reference books, including dictionaries, books of quotations, synonyms, thesaurus, and literary sources.
• Dictionary and Glossary List - 2468774 words in 629 dictionaries indexed.
• Dictionary of American Regional English - documents the variety of English in the U.S.A.
• Dictionary.com - dictionaries, thesauri, tools, games, translators, etc.
• Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable - Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have a Tale to Tell.
• I Love Languages (formerly known as The Human-Languages Page) - language related Internet resources.
• Lexicate - An online dictionary resource. All dictionaries are human-reviewed.
• List of Dictionaries - a comprehensive site of dictionaries of many languages from the Univerität of Paderborn, Germany.
• Model Language Index - select from Anglo-Saxon Computerese to Shorthand.
• Merriam-Webster - resources from the distinguished dictionary and reference book company.
• Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus - an exploration of sense relationships within the English language.
• Research-It! - search dictionaries, thesauri, the Bible, and many other tools.
• THE RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary - a nice tool that allows not only exact rhymes, but definitions, synonyms, homophones, and semantic siblings.
• Strange & Unusual Dictionaries
• A Web of On-line Dictionaries - indexes on-line dictionaries, thesauri, and such like containing words and phrases
• Webopedia - online dictionary and search engine for computer and Internet technology
• The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus - an integrated English Dictionary and Thesaurus.
• Your Dictionary.com - Access to more than 1500 online dictionaries representing 230 languages. Some dictionaries are in specialized fields; some offer translation.

Other Language Reference Links

• American Slanguages - choose a city and find out how to talk like the locals.
• American English - The UK Web Library American/British translation.
• AmeriSpeak - Expressions of our American ancestors.
• Ask Oxford - to learn about the English language, just ask the Oxford experts.
• The Book of Cliches - a compilation of common phrases, euphemisms, and rationales for times of trouble.
• Cliche Finder - 3,300 clichés indexed.
• Database of American Proprietary Eponyms - general term used to describe from what or whom something derived its name.
• English Through the Ages - a quick tour of the changes in the English language.
• HEL Website - History of the English Language Home Page.
• ISRT Online - ISRT is an organization formed to inform the populace of the firm and widespread roots of English in Latin.
• A Language Museum - curious and interesting uses of the English language.
• fonetiks - online language laboratory
• Phobia List - It's enough to give you hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words). Features a reverse phobia list where you can look things up the thing feared.
• Phrase Finder - does for phrases what a thesaurus does for words.
• Purdue University On-line Writing Lab - handouts from Purdue University.
• Sounds of the World's Animals - explore the sounds of world's languages through the sounds of the world's animals.
• Wayne Magnuson English Idioms - sayings and slang.

Word Games

• Anagram Puzzler How many of these can you solve in 30 minutes?
• HoadWorks Puzzles - Home Page - a repository of the word games featured on the author's Wordly-l listserver.
• Puzzability - an interesting variety of weekly puzzles by former editors for Games magazine.
• Michael Curl's Puzzles and WordPlay - Tom Swifties, anagrams, trivia, puzzles,etc.
• Syndicate.com - recreational and educational word puzzles.
• Vocabulary.com - vocabulary puzzles and games.
• Wacky World of Words - mix'em, shake 'em, and turn them inside out. You'll be amazed by what they can do.
• Where's THAT From? - an etymology game.

Word and Letter Play

Anagrams

• AnagramGenius - the self-described definitive anagram site.
• Anagram.com - Formerly Anagram Insanity. Type in a word or phrase and the computer will find anagrams for your selection.
• I, Rearrangement Servant - discover the wisdom of anagrams.
• Andy's anagram solver - multilingual anagrams in English, French, and Dutch.
• Today's ANI-GRAM - Animated anagram humour.

Oxymora

• Oxymorons Home Page - Oxymoron = a sharp dullness or a foolish wise...a self contradicting phrase.
• Oxymorons - lists of oxymorons.

Palindromes

• The Palindromist Magazine - a journal For people who WRITE - and read - palindromes
• Zo's Palindromes - a site with more than 3,000 palindromes.

Other Wordplay

• Anguish Languish - the versatile and flexible English language.
• The Ants Are My Friends (new url) - a site for Mondegreens (lyrics heard incorrectly).
• Chiasmus.com - a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases.
• A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia
• E-nough Already - The Society for the Preservation of the Other 25 Letters of the Alphabet.
• JOHN LANGDON´S WORDPLAY - all about ambigrams - words that can be read from more than one point of view.
• The Heteronym Homepage - words that are spelled identically but have different meanings when pronounced differently.
• Ladle Rat Rotten Hut - listen to the story of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
• Logophilia - Word Lover's Web Site with games, quotations, and wordplay.
• The Spoonerisms Page - tips of the slung.
• A.Word.A.Day Home Page - the music and magic of words.
• Word Play - sites that feature fun with words.
• The Word Weenie - puns, parodies, bloopers and other language laughs
• The Word Wizard - takes you on a magical tour across language.

Word Watching & Vocabulary Development

• Banished Words List - a tongue-in-cheek banishment list from Lake Superior State University. Submit your nomination!
• Banned for Life - Media clichés.
• The Collective Noun Page - You've heard of a herd of antelope, but have you ever encountered a blessing of unicorns or a brace of orthodontists?
• The Hartman Reader Page - Things Useful To The Educated Reader or to Those Wishing to Become More So.
• Rhetorical Figures - From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.
• Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature (SPELL) - promotes the proper use of the English language
• Spelling it Right - Help, exercises and advice
• The Word Police - As a certified Word Police officer, you will be entitled to issue Grammar Citations when you see or hear crimes against the language.
• Word Quests - A rich source of links to English words that are derived from Latin and Greek sources.
• Words in English: NEW WORDS - Neologisms and novel uses of words in English collected by members of a Linguistics class at Rice University.
• WORDWATCH Introduction - digs up a word or phrase out of the Bank of English and holds it up for inspection and comment.
• Words, Words, and More Words - Words for writing, words for speaking, word games, old words, trendy words, debating words, negotiating words.

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