The Word Knowledge

A short list about words selected from the news and entertainment headlines:

1. According to an online survey, clichés like "at the end of the day", "24/7" and "literally" are among the most reviled.
2. Bad language can sometimes be used to energize normal language.
3. Logophobia is the obsessive fear or dislike of words.
4. An aphorism denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form, such as "love is never having to say you're sorry".
5. Some Albanians settle family feuds through an ancient code called "Kanun" which allows revenge to be exacted on any male adult member of a family, but precludes entry to that person's property. Kanun is Ottoman Turkish for "code of law*", which is derived from the Greek kanōn meaning "rule". It has worked its way into the English lexicon as the word "canon".

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