Charles Harrington Elster
American writer and broadcaster
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
It is almost a truism to say that words have the power to transform us and crystallize our vision of the world. I say almost because, though the statement may seem trite, it is unassailable. Every literate one of us has experienced its truth.
—Charles Harrington Elster, American writer and broadcaster, The New York Times, September 21, 2003
Posted on January 29, 2004 at 4:01 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
I am an unrepentant, irremediable word nerd and proud of it, for language is the most pleasant obsession I know.
—Charles Harrington Elster, American writer and broadcaster, There's a Word for It!, 1996
Posted on October 18, 2000 at 11:41 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
When I was growing up, one of the surest ways to raise the decibel level of the already stentorian conversation at dinnertime was to raise the subject of pronunciation, or worse, to question how another family member pronounced a certain word. What would begin as an animated discussion often would degenerate into a shouting match and end with the contestants hunched and panting over an unabridged dictionary. If a clear victor emerged, the vanquished party was often sullen for weeks.
—Charles Harrington Elster, American writer and broadcaster, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, 1999
Posted on September 7, 1998 at 7:26 AM
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