Maybe you’ve read the comic books or seen some of the Marvel movies that feature a big blond guy named Thor, founding member of the Avengers and brother of Loki. But, Thursday is a bigger tribute to the Norse god of thunder than any movie or comic book upon which it’s based. After all, it is “Thor’s day.” Who is Thor? In Norse mythology, the original Thor …
1. Tracy Morgan’s schooling on the difference between well and good. Tracy is known for having surprising moments of insight, but this grammar smackdown takes the cake. 2. The time even Oscar Martinez was stumped by English grammar rules. We’ve all faked knowing how to use terms like who and whom (because, really, English is complicated enough). This scene nails that perplexing feeling when faced …
From the college gridiron to the chemistry lab to a politician in India, the trending word list for October 5–12, 2018 has a world’s worth of information in it. So pack your bags, and get ready to hit the road with us. Linalool LaCroix may be the reason you can’t get enough of bubbly water these days, but the brand is facing a lawsuit that …
You can tell a lot about a person by their daily habits. Do they make their bed every day? Do they eat the same lunch special? Maybe they’re a bit of a rebel and take each experience as it comes. How about something a little more puzzling. What does your crossword puzzle solving style say about you? Believe it or not, crossword solvers are a …
Scrabble players are acutely aware that Q is a tricky letter. To use a Q in the game, a player must nearly always find an available U. (We’ll overlook the coveted two-letter word qi that any respectable Scrabble player will know.) The fact that Q is the second most rarely-used letter in the alphabet certainly doesn’t make using Q any easier. Let’s quest toward resolving …
Are you a cruciverbalist? A lover of crosswords? If you can immediately recite a long list of obscure words with an excessive amount of vowels, you’re probably an avid crossword solver. And, this set of vocabulary that is full of words more likely to fill in your morning crossword puzzle rather than your everyday conversation is commonly known as crosswordese. Crosswordese words are used by …
You’re plodding along, filling in the squares in your crossword puzzle like a champ, when you see something a bit foreign … literally. It could be a clue containing a non-English phrase or, perhaps, the answer requires knowledge about a far and distant land. In any case, it doesn’t seem to be in your vocabulary. Unless you’re a polyglot or frequent globetrotter, such clues …
Kanye West. Mean Girls. Brett Kavanaugh. What do they all have in common? Spots on the trending words list this week, September 29–October 5, 2018! Let’s get to all the learning, shall we? Unprogrammed Rapper Kanye West announced the creation of a new word over the weekend. Just one problem? Unprogrammed has been around for centuries. The word made its first landing on the trending …
Perhaps you’ve heard of vocal fry, a quality of speech often associated with the likes of Kim Kardashian or Katy Perry. American media stories detailing vocal fry sometimes warn us that it’s damaging to our vocal cords, and that women who use vocal fry are jeopardizing their job prospects. As wonderful as it is that the mass media is paying attention to phonetics, much of …
The Cinderella that English speakers know and love can be traced to the French story Cendrillon, first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, though Chinese and Greek versions of this classic tale go back to the 9th century CE and 6th century BCE, respectively. Today, there are over 500 variants of Cinderella in Europe alone. It’s no surprise, then, that describing something as a Cinderella …
Whether you learned your ABCs while hanging out with the gang from Sesame Street, from someone in your family, or you were schooled in everything from A to Z in kindergarten, you probably learned the alphabet with the help of the alphabet song. The clever tune is imprinted in the brains of most of us English speakers. When you look up a word in the …
English is a more varied (and delicious) melting pot than you think … English—is one of the most incredible, flavorfully-complex melting pots of linguistic ingredients from other countries that’s been left to simmer for (in some cases) centuries. These linguistic ingredients are called loanwords that have been borrowed and incorporated into English. The loanwords are oftentimes so common now, the foreign flavor has been completely …