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Hats off ๐ฉ
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If you've been watching hockey this season or you're gearing up for this year's World Cup, you're likely familiar with the term hat trick. And if you're not, here you go: It's when one player scores three goals in one game. It's commonly associated with hockey and soccer, but it can apply to other sports, as well as to a series of three victories. But there are no hats in soccer, and hockey players wear helmets. So why the "hat"? "Hat trick" made its sports debut in cricket. When a bowler would retire three batsmen with three consecutive balls, the bowler would get a hat from his club to celebrate the accomplishment. Then there's also the magic of it all. Around the same time people began using "hat trick" in cricket, magicians were also starting to pull objects out of hats. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, there was also a bar trick that might have influenced the term. The trick involved someone putting a hat over a glass of liquor and declaring they would drink it without touching the hat. They would then duck under the table and make slurping sounds before popping back up in the hopes an observer would pick up the hat to check. Then, the trickster could grab the liquor and drink it, all without touching the hat. So even if you can't score three goals in one game, you still might be able to pull off a hat trick ๐คทโโ๏ธ๐ฉ Any other sports-related terms you're curious about? Hit reply and let us know. โค Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebotโs newsletter.
Today we're going to talk about dashes โ but not that kind. The em dash has gotten a lot of attention in recent years because of its tendency to show up in AI-generated writing. Some of us who are longtime lovers of the em dash (including the humans behind this newsletter ๐โ๏ธ) might pause before using it now, for fear of giving the wrong impression about how our writing was generated. (For the record, we still lean into the em dash, but you do you.) The en dash is a close relative of the em...
What a week! People celebrated Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras and Lunar New Year this week, all while the Olympics were happening and Ramadan began. To top it off, there was a solar eclipse on Tuesday. To mark this week, we have some event- and holiday-themed writing tips that you can use through the rest of the week and month: The Olympics closing ceremony is on Sunday. Just like "opening ceremony," "closing ceremony" is not capitalized. Remember, Team USA is an exception to the rule about...
We're going further than we've ever gone before into the difference between farther and further. Many of you have requested that we cover this commonly confused pair of words, and with good reason: "Further" is used a lot when language sticklers would use "farther." OK, so what's the difference? "Farther" is for references to physical distance, while "further" is for figurative descriptions. So to further your fitness goals, you might run farther than you did yesterday. Here are a couple of...