You’ve probably seen the hashtags on TikTok: cottagecore, royalcore, normcore. It’s clear they’re associated with a specific aesthetic and that people are major fans, but what’s the deal with every social trend suddenly getting its own unique -core name? Fandoms naming themselves isn’t a new thing—just ask Taylor Swift’s Swifties or Beyonce’s Beyhive. But the -core trend takes the idea of fandom and applies it …
In our latest update to Dictionary.com, we added more than 300 new words and definitions, and revised over 1,700 entries. Many of the newly added terms are pulled straight from the headlines like Daesh, intersectionality, warmist, woke, and Zika virus. Several of the new words relate directly to the media, including lamestream, presstitute, and hot take. Mainstream cultural conversations give Dictionary.com’s lexicographers an endless supply …
During the month of Ramadan, followers of Islam around the world partake in fasting. No food or drink is consumed during the daylight hours for 30 straight days. People who partake are far from alone. In fact, fasting plays an important role in many religions, as well as in diets and forms of protest. Regardless of the purpose, there’s a couple of questions that relate …
It’s always a good time for soul food. And June is an especially good time because June is National Soul Food Month. But before you dig in, do you know what soul food really means, and where it comes from? The rich history and vocabulary of soul food are rooted in the cultures of the African diaspora, and its dishes and traditions were shaped by …
During the holiday season, we hear Merry Christmas countless times. How did we settle on this Christmas greeting? It’s not clear, but in the United States, the word merry is almost exclusively used in the Christmas season. Merry in this phrase means “festive or characterized by rejoicing.” One of the earliest known uses of Merry Christmas is in a December 22, 1534, record of a …
It’s in human nature to tell stories and in many ways, our stories—our mythologies—work their way into every aspect of our daily lives, from meme culture to the language we speak. You may be familiar with some of the words derived from the names of Greek and Roman gods and characters (herculean, echo, narcissist, to name a few). But some of the words with similar …
Puerto Rican songwriter Bad Bunny loves to meld genres—reggaetón blended with a little pop here, punk and rock there, and also soul. In a way, his music perfectly encapsulates Caribbean and Latin American music and its history of weaving and fusing together different musical styles that come together for a highly danceable mix. From reggaetón to the cha-cha-cha to the “singing newspapers” known as plena, Caribbean and …
An Anatomy Of Cocktail Names Through History by John M. Cunningham The cocktail renaissance of the 21st century, in which craft-cocktail bars have proliferated and classic cocktails are back in fashion, has proved that there is a true art to inventing and mixing drinks. But, what about naming them? For some bartenders, bestowing a name upon one of their newly devised concoctions can be the …
A look at the slang and pop culture terms from songs to figure out why these annoyingly catchy songs went viral.
