Batman lurks like a bat in the shadows. Spider-Man slings webs like a radioactive spider. Superman is a literal translation of Friedrich Nietszche’s term ubermensch. And Wonder Woman is … well, what does Wonder Woman’s name tell us about her? A lot, it turns out. When William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman in the early 1940s, he envisioned her not only as Diana, an Amazon …
You’re out and about, you order what you think is a nice tea or coffee, and surprise! It has alcohol in it!?
A euphemism is a gentle word or expression for a harsh or offensive term.
English is a vast, glorious language, yet even with its incredible number of words, it feels like it’s still missing some absolute basics. The lack of these words leads to either lengthy clarifications or awkward situations—like getting stuck taking your friend’s llama to the flea market (more on that below). Of course, we can’t just go adding words to the dictionary all willy-nilly, but if …
Differentiating two words that go the distance… Do you use farther and further interchangeably? You’re not alone. The terms have very similar meanings, and English speakers have been using them as synonyms for centuries. But if you’re ready to get picky, there is one major difference that can guide your usage of these words! The widely accepted rule is to use farther when being literal and …
Do you know what these winning words mean—all the way back to the first Scripps National Spelling Bee, in 1925?
The continued box office success of the Fast and the Furious franchise gives moviegoers and word-lovers something to cheer about. Beyond the stunning action sequences, though, audiences, including us, actually really enjoy the title itself. That probably has something to do with its alliteration, “a figure of speech in which a consonant sound at the beginning of a word is repeated” (in this case the sound of the letter …
We’ve reached the era of the self-driving car! Congratulations, us. Ford, General Motors, and Volkswagen are all in the autonomous driving game, along with many up-and-comers. Waymo (a division of Alphabet, Google’s holding company) describes theirs as “a safer car for everyone.” In a way, it’s shaky ground we’re standing on. One, because we’re standing on a foundation of dated perceptions of the future, and …
