Carolina Institute for Faith & Culture

Paul Schleifer My first observation about the word canon is that it is not cannon “a mounted gun for firing heavy projectiles.” Canon means “an ecclesiastical rule or law enacted […]

Paul Schleifer April 16 2018 Word of the Day: Ken Ken means “one’s range of knowledge or understanding,” according to the OED.  In the Scottish dialect, it can also mean […]

Paul Schleifer Mete means to dispense or distribute or give someone according to a specific measurement. It is often used with the particle out. It comes from the Old English […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, pithy means “brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression.” According to the OED, it means “full of concentrated meaning; conveying meaning forcibly through brevity of expression,” […]

Paul Schleifer According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, recondite means “1: difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend; 2 : of, relating to, or dealing with […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.etymonline.com, mordant enters the English language in the “late 15c., ‘caustic’ (of words, speech), from Middle French mordant, literally ‘biting,’ present participle of mordre ‘to bite,’ from Latin mordere ‘to bite, bite […]

Paul Schleifer Yea, right! That’s a word? Does it mean a person whose expertise is catching eels? Or perhaps a person who makes eels out of something else? Or perhaps […]

Paul Schleifer According to the OED, pivotal means, “Of, relating to, or acting as a pivot; being that on which anything turns or depends; central, crucial, vital.” So, what’s a […]

Paul Schleifer Neoteric means “modern; new; recent.” It sounds like a new word, a neologism, because it is one you’ve probably never heard before, but according to www.etymonline.com, it entered […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, cabal means “1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority; 2. the plots and schemes of such a […]

Paul Schleifer The word phoenix comes into English during the Old English period, from Medieval Latin phenix, which came from the Greek phoenix. It is unclear exactly which Greek meaning […]

Paul Schleifer Orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation, or of the received pronunciation. In English, it once meant specifically the study of Received Pronunciation, or RP, which was the […]