Word & Song by Anthony Esolen | Substack

Word of the Week

Check in every Monday to learn about the newest word of the week.

We’re in the forest, and it’s cold, and there’s a very old man near death, because he’s had nothing to eat in days. His name, fittingly enough, is Adam…

Nov 21

“I don’t go to the Acme anymore,” said my Aunt Fran to my mother, while I was lounging on the sofa, letting them have a nice visit. “They’re too dear…

Nov 14

Word of the Wee

Nov 7

My earliest memory, at least the earliest that my mother can set a date on, was sixty years ago now, in 1962, in the summer.

Oct 31

Word of the Week

Oct 24

I don’t find the word, Dad, in English literature before 1600. The earliest use I’m aware of, in literature, appears in Tourneur’s The Atheist’s…

Jun 13

First Word: Grammar!

Jun 27

Word of the Week

Jul 18

“He’s all talk,” we say, when we want to criticize someone who says a lot but never backs it up with action. “Talk is cheap,” we say, when we want to…

Aug 1

In old days, when Hollywood directors wanted to portray a marriage, they turned to the high-church Anglican language and form, so that the priest would…

Aug 15

“The WORLD is too much with us,” says the poet Wordsworth, “late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” I don’t know whether young…

Aug 29

Word of the Week: WORK On the seventh day, says the sacred author, God rested from all the WORKS he had wrought, and therefore he blessed that day, and…

Sep 5

I hated SCHOOL when I was a boy, even though from grades three through eight I didn’t have to ride a SCHOOL bus, and at least I wasn’t sent to the…

Sep 12

For us who live far from the equator, it’s natural to look upon SUMMER as the height of life. SPRING is still too young, and though it bears much…

Aug 22

It’s a fine thing to consider that words that seem to mean exactly the same thing do not really do so, because the shades are different, or one is more…

Aug 8

Word of the Week

Jul 25

Word of the Week

Jul 11

Word of the Week

Jul 4

New Top Community

Word of the Week

Nov 28

We’re in the forest, and it’s cold, and there’s a very old man near death, because he’s had nothing to eat in days. His name, fittingly enough, is Adam…

Nov 21

“I don’t go to the Acme anymore,” said my Aunt Fran to my mother, while I was lounging on the sofa, letting them have a nice visit. “They’re too dear…

Nov 14

Word of the Wee

Nov 7

My earliest memory, at least the earliest that my mother can set a date on, was sixty years ago now, in 1962, in the summer.

Oct 31

Word of the Week

Oct 24

I don’t find the word, Dad, in English literature before 1600. The earliest use I’m aware of, in literature, appears in Tourneur’s The Atheist’s…

Jun 13

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