A surprising number of languages say yes—sometimes If there’s one thing you thought you knew about talking, it’s that speech is produced by pushing air out of the lungs, not by breathing in. But is that always true? This video shows a particular sound that means “yes” in Swedish, and it’s produced while inhaling: But it turns out that the Swedish inhaled “yes” sound is …
The most popular sport in the world is one in which people chase after a ball and kick it with their feet (and give it an occasional head-butt). In most places where this sport is enjoyed it is referred to in a straightforward fashion: football.
Today we’re going to explore the meanings and uses of the adverbs continually and continuously. These terms, along with their adjective forms continual and continuous, are often used interchangeably in speech and writing, but style guides urge writers to practice discernment when using continually and continuously. In formal contexts, continually should be used to mean “very often; at regular or frequent intervals,” and continuously to …
Many words have been wasted on the subject of when adulthood starts. Some hold that it comes about with the right to drink alcoholic beverages or vote in an election. For particularly stringent grammarians of a certain generation, the rite of passage that marks the official start of adulthood is the point at which one becomes annoyed at hearing someone say that something is awesome, …
In a spring 2015 update to the dictionary, we added more than a thousand new and modified definitions including gaming words like esports, permadeath and completionist, terms to prepare you for the 2016 elections like slacktivism, and gender-related terms agender, bigender, and gender-fluid.But how do lexicographers (the people who compile and update dictionaries) stay on top of language change? Luckily, we have a number of …
While Kim Kardashian was busy “breaking the Internet” with her controversial photoshoot for Paper in November of 2014, New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde was teaching the world—or at least her Twitter and Tumblr followers—about a new slang use of the word mom. How is mom used on the internet? These three little letters tweeted out by Lorde in response to Kardashian’s cover photo caused such confusion that the 18-year-old …
This week’s trending words touch on the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana, the earthquake in Nepal, and the latest economic report.smugness: contentedly confident of one’s ability, superiority, or correctness.The story of Shona Banda, a 37-year-old woman in Kansas who has lost custody of her 11-year-old son after he allegedly told school officials that there was drug use at his home, provoked comment from television …
English is comprised of many confusing words. Or is it … composed of many words? Case in point: comprise and compose look very similar and have very similar meanings, so it’s no surprise that it can be hard to keep these two straight. Let’s explore comprise and compose, how they are used, and how you can tell them apart. What do comprise and compose mean? The …
The popularity of the Apple Watch has given the noun wearable some additional prominence. This leads to the question of which term came first: wearable or personal computer? As with so many such questions, there is no simple answer.
One of the most cherished beliefs of people who collect facts about English is that Shakespeare is the greatest linguistic inventor the language has ever seen. You cannot travel very far online before coming across some article or listicle asserting that he was responsible for giving birth to some exceedingly large portion of our vocabulary, and giving examples of numerous common words that began with …