Linguists tell us that the Anglo-Saxons gave us most of the words we use today. They provided most of the clean ones and nearly every four-letter one you use after slamming a door on your thumb or ...

“Scumbag,” sounds like the kind of hokey insult that would get you laughed at if you used it. When it was used in a New York Times, it got protests from some older readers, because once upon a time it ...