Halloween can almost generate a dictionary of its own.
The word Halloween, a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening," did not appear until 1556, but the holiday has a plethora of words associated with it, from ghoul to Jack o'-lantern to hobgoblin to bogeyman, and the list goes on. This hour, Charity speaks to "Word Maven" Patricia O'Conner, the proprietor of the blog Grammarphobia. Patricia, an Iowa native, has written many books about the English language, including "Woe is I," "Words Fail Me," and "Origins of the Specious."
