{"id":2837,"date":"2026-08-04T18:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=2837"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:57:16","slug":"word-of-the-week-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2026\/08\/04\/word-of-the-week-conundrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Whirlpool<\/a>Now that my password is reset at UR and I’ve the two-factor app on my new phone, these posts can resume. I feel, however, that all of our technology has put us into a conundrum: what was supposed to make life simpler has led to many complications. Consider all the passwords you have to set, all the pop-up windows you have to close, ads to block, spam to filter.<\/p>\n

This was not the promise of the Internet in the 1990s. Instead, we are faced with an unsolvable riddle, a dilemma, a paradox. In short, a conundrum.<\/p>\n

Our word’s etymology merits a look. The Online Etymology Dictionary<\/a> has this fascinating history:<\/p>\n

“1590s, an abusive term for a person, perhaps meaning ‘a pedant;’ c. 1600, ‘a whim;’ 1640s, ‘pun or word-play,’ a word of unknown origin, said in 17c. to be Oxford University slang.”<\/p>\n

I have never heard anyone called a conundrum, though I’ve known plenty of pedants and been called one myself. But we can see from the evolution in our word’s meaning how the sense of something that eludes an easy answer came to be.<\/p>\n

As for our technology conundrums? Go analog more. Silence the phone. Ditch the Social Media conundrum of it promising to connect us but instead dividing us.<\/p>\n

Get an ad blocker. Good luck!<\/p>\n

As Summer wanes (thank goodness; I hate hot weather) and Fall semester resumes, send in words or metaphors worth covering. Email me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leave a comment below. Want to write a guest entry? Let me know!<\/p>\n

See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image: The\u00a0Gulf of Corryvreckan<\/a> whirlpool in Scotland, From Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that my password is reset at UR and I’ve the two-factor app on my new phone, these posts can resume. I feel, however, that all of our technology has put us into a conundrum: what was supposed to make life simpler has led to many complications. Consider all the passwords you have to set, … Continue reading Word of the Week! Conundrum<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2516,87405,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-2837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2841,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837\/revisions\/2841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}