Fifth grade is typically the final year of grade school, which means the lessons get cranked up a notch in preparation for middle school and beyond. Teachers ask students to delve deeper into subject matter, stretch their skills, and show more independence. The work is challenging but intriguing as they explore new concepts and develop their opinions about them. Fifth grade is also the year …
-Able is a cool suffix that allows you to describe things in new and interesting ways. Adding -able to a word makes it into an adjective that indicates something or someone is capable of or worthy of something. For instance, if a doughnut is dunkable, that means it can be dipped into a cup of milk or coffee. Verbs With -Able You’ll most often see …
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said, “Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify, because the players are always changing; the team could move to another city. You’re actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it.” Still, we persist in pouring our heart and soul into following our teams. So, in all this devotion, have you ever wondered where …
In 2012, as Halloween quickly approached, a Frankenstorm was sneaking up on the East Coast. Forecasters were calling the hurricane headed for New York, New Jersey, and as far inland as Ohio, “Frankenstorm” because (like the monster in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus) this storm was stitched together from three different weather systems, Hurricane Sandy from the Caribbean, a western early winter …
by Rory GoryIn a recent study, “Diversity of Youth Sexual Orientation,” The Trevor Project found that one in five LGBTQ youth are using different words to describe their sexual and romantic identities and orientations, including terms like asexual and aromantic. (Read more about this study and those new words here.) But, there are many persistent and painful myths and misunderstandings surrounding sexual orientation, romantic attraction, …
Number two in our miniseries of “What’s In A Name” deals with popular brand names and their etymology. While some names are easy to figure out—Ford cars are named after Henry Ford—other brand name origins are a bit more complex, or in some cases, convoluted. Nike Nike refers to the Greek winged goddess of victory as well as a tactical missile of the 1940s. As …
A motley combination of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Germanic dialects, the English language (more or less as we know it) coalesced between the 9th and 13th centuries. Since then, it has continued to import and borrow words and expressions from around the world, and the meanings have mutated. (Awesome and awful once meant nearly the same thing.)Some specimens in the English vocabulary have followed unusually circuitous …
