According to Merriam-Webster online, the English language contains roughly one million words — though that tally includes “myriad names of chemicals and other scientific entities.” Furthermore, this site — which offers lots of other cool info besides just meanings — also points out that there’s considerable disagreement on the actual total; as an example, even
Here at Webb’s Weird Words, oddball vocab is our stock-in-trade. Articles on these usually come from my sprawling list of terms encountered in my nonstop reading. But lately, we haven’t done many of these randomly chosen selections; this is due in part to busyness, but also to thematic groupings — like “sailing words,” in honor
In 2018, an unheralded little documentary came out with this oddball title: 78/52. Dedicated solely to the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho, that film took its title from the number of camera set-ups and shots contained in that now-legendary sequence. It’s safe to say that no one else ever has made — or ever will
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker Psycho has inspired three sequels and two TV shows—including AMC’s five-season Bates Motel, with Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates; there was also a surreal shot-for-shot color remake in 1998; and a “making-of” movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson (they play, respectively, Hitch, his wife and actress Janet Leigh).
If you’ve missed Weird Words these past couple of weeks — well, Weird Words has missed you too. It’s only busy-ness that’s kept our vocabulary studies on hiatus; but here at last, we’re ready to conclude our three-part look at the works and words of Patrick O’Brian. He’s the author behind the beloved Aubrey-Maturin novels
