Words

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: FLECHE In ecclesiastical architecture , the Gothic fashion was for the fleche (pronunciation anglicized as FLESH), a slender spire, often placed at the intersection of the nave and the transept. It is a direct lifting from the French fleche , or "arrow," resembling an arrow that has been shot through the structure, protruding through the roof.

Here in Wordville, news of the discovery of a fresh superstition about language is as exciting as the discovery of a hitherto-unknown tribal society in Borneo would be to an anthropologist. And, as with the anthropological discovery, the novelty will be found to coincide with certain human universals.  A correspondent has informed Arnold Zwicky of an invented rule of grammar and usage that he had never encountered. (Nor had I.) A teacher in Germany, a Briton, solemnly informs students that " there  was used for relatively short distances,  over there  for significantly longer distances.

NEW ORLEANS -- Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco apologized Tuesday for what he called a bad choice of words when responding to a question about cold-weather cities hosting Super Bowls. "Yeah, I think it's retarded," Flacco said on Monday. "I guess I shouldn't say [word]. ... " During Media Day on Tuesday, Flacco said he regretted using the term. "It was a bad choice of words," Flacco said. "I have a great relationship with Special Olympics back in Baltimore and have had one for many years.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco apologized Tuesday for what he called a bad choice of words when responding to a question about cold-weather cities hosting Super Bowls. Flacco was asked by a columnist from Denver if he had an opinion on the decision to hold next year's Super Bowl in New York and the possibility of the city of Denver convincing the NFL to deliver the big game to Sports Authority Field at Mile High sometime in the next decade. “Yeah, I think it's retarded," he said.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: SUPERCILIOUS The handy British expression toffee-nosed , for "pretentiously superior" or "snobbish," is evocative but informal. For starchy occasions you may want to use supercilious (pronounced soo-per-SIL-e-as). A supercilious person displays that he thinks himself superior to others, is disdainful, contemptuous, haughty, or scornful.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: COXCOMB Some words pop into the language and then flicker out, while others fade over a long span. Given the abundance of conceited fools among us, it is a pity that a fine old word for them, coxcomb , has fallen into disuse. It was originally cockscomb (pronounced CAKHS-com)

Loser won't be the worst name Broncos safety Rahim Moore will be called after committing the biggest orange-and-blue blunder in team history. "I'm taking the blame for it. Hey, I lost the game for us. It is what it is," Moore said Saturday evening, his voice cracking after Denver was eliminated from the NFL playoffs with a shocking 38-35 double-overtime loss to Baltimore. In a Denver locker room where grown men fought back tears and quarterback Peyton Manning's storybook finish was shattered before the final chapter could begin, Broncos coach John Fox had to find some way to say goodbye.

We no longer have children or kids or teenagers or young people. We used to have them, but now we just have youth .  Youth  used to be a singular, that thing that is wasted on the young, or the individual in the Sydney Smith screed about taxation: "The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven...

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: AUTODIDACT One of the most notable self-educated persons in American history is Abraham Lincoln, who had the sketchiest of formal educations in his childhood, no more than a few months. Teaching himself English prose from reading the Bible and Shakespeare, and later teaching himself logic through reading law, he became a formidable thinker and speaker.