Category Archives: Words

Surnames

The study of how names came to be is called onomastics. In Britain, surnames were rare until the arrival of William the Conqueror. Until the nineteenth century the Dutch still did not use surnames generally. This perturbed Napoleon who ordered … Continue reading

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Protest Too Much

“Methinks thou dost protest too much” is a fine example of iambic poetry, but it is not what Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” iambic and pentameter, is what he wrote in Hamlet, Act III, … Continue reading

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Finnegans Wake

By James Joyce. Has no apostrophe.

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