To sneeze. Ah, to sneeze, perchance to breathe…through both nostrils.

We can be such geeks sometimes.

Sneezing has been around for as long as noses have been, and the word ‘sneeze’ has been part of the English language for centuries. It came to us so long ago that its roots are in the so-old-that-it-is-merely-conjectural Proto-Germanic, in which the root is said to have been *fneu-s-.

Sneezing – quite a lot of it – is what I was doing last weekend, as well as sniffling, wheezing, and crying when the sneezes faked me out and mocked me on their way back into my sinuses.

Oh, I live a wild, wild life, my friends.

Something good did come out of my lovely little stint in sick bay. On Sunday night, still relegated to the couch, surrounded by tissues and half-drunken cups of tea, I was catching up on some grading for my summer class. After a long stretch, I needed a break and hopped on Twitter. There, I found I was just 2-3 minutes away from a “101 Troublesome Words” Twitter party hosted by Grammar Girl. I figured I was ready for a good discussion about troublesome words, so I decided to join the party. Continue reading →