What’s the difference between a fiddle and a violin, anyway? They seem to look exactly the same, so why the different names? Was the fiddler on the roof secretly a violinist? And what exactly was Nero playing? No fiddlin’ around—just answers to your burning questions about the fiddle and the violin. The words fiddle and violin are two names for the same stringed instrument—fiddle is …
Chances are, when you started reading you encountered plenty of new words. That’s great for you—you were learning, after all—but here’s the catch. Your skill at pronouncing these words didn’t necessarily keep up with your reading skills, leading to some funny mishaps. Did colonel’s pronunciation confuse you? What about choir? Or hors’d’oeuvres? (Did you try “horse divorce” or “hers dervs”?) This might seem silly now, but …
The origin of the word pizza The word pizza as we now know it is recorded in English in the early 1800s, though early English lexicographer John Florio enters pizza for “a small cake or wafer” in his historically important 1598 Italian-English dictionary. Pizza, of course, is borrowed from Italian, but the deeper ingredients of the word, if you will, are unclear. Some think the Greek pitta (pita, …
When you hear the phrase red carpet, what comes to mind? Chances are that it’s not the questionable red shag from the ’70s that covers the living room in your relative’s aging home. For many people, the red carpet is synonymous with prestige, status, celebrity, ceremony, and a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Hollywood’s big night, the Oscars, is a prime example. But this …
Every March and November, most Americans change their clocks to keep up with the switch into or out of daylight-saving time. This practice of advancing the clocks ahead an hour is called daylight-saving time. But, because daylight savings time is used so frequently, the term is also considered acceptable. Daylight-saving time means that since the clock is moved ahead one hour, you get one more …
In the 1950s, a new spiritual and nature-focused religion started to gain steam. It was deemed wicca, and its followers called wiccans. For people on the outside looking in, there was the possibility for some confusion on what, exactly, wiccans practiced—including how it related to paganism. Which draws the question: are you pagan if you’re wicca? Someone who is wiccan follows “a nature-oriented religion having …
Dictionary Week celebrations continue with Word Love Day and a swoon-worthy smorgasbord of happenings, activities, and resources for language enthusiasts of every level. Calling all lexeme lovers, word nerds, and dictionary devotees! If you’re a bona fide language buff, this is the day for you! 🎁 We’re Giving Away Words We know you love words just as much as we do, so we’ve prepared a …
Inductive and deductive are commonly used in the context of logic, reasoning, and science. Scientists use both inductive and deductive reasoning as part of the scientific method. Fictional detectives like Sherlock Holmes are famously associated with methods of deduction (though that’s often not what Holmes actually uses—more on that later). Some writing courses involve inductive and deductive essays. But what’s the difference between inductive and …
Paunchy, winsome, defiance, thaumaturgical. What could this unusual assortment of words possibly have in common? Dads, apparently. Our Data Scientists examined what users looked up on Dictionary.com on Mother’s Day in 2018. Well, Daddy-o, they’ve worked their magic again. Here are the search terms that trended in each state for Father’s Day, 2018. And, compared to our moms, the words tell a very different tale. (A …
If it’s spring, it must be time for our fancy to turn to thoughts of basketball and, of course, March Madness—an interesting term, if we’ve ever heard one. Would you be surprised to find out the term March Madness didn’t originate with basketball? The phrase seems to date back to the 1800s and is thought to be connected to the much older expression mad as a March hare. But …
Six guesses, five letters, infinite boasting rights. Since the word puzzle Wordle first released publicly online in October 2021, it has become a blockbuster hit. The principle of the game is simple: each player has six chances to guess one five-letter word. After each guess, the letters change color: green for right letter, right location; yellow for right letter, wrong location; and gray for wrong …
