LANGUAGE
Translating What Your Cat is Trying to Tell You
Where Does the Expression "Hands Down" Come From?
10 Awful Words and the People They're Named For
Did these word-inspiring folks really deserve to have their names dragged through the linguistic mud?
Watch a Baby Go from Babbling to Baby Talk to Words in ASL
Children acquiring sign languages go through the same linguistic stages that those acquiring spoken languages do.
Study Shows All Languages Skew Towards Happiness
14 Scots Words from the Works of Robert Burns
Polish up on this list of words and phrases from Robert Burns’s complete works. Highlighting the imagination of his Scots language, they are ripe for revival by Robbie revelers old and new.
Why Your Family Name Did Not Come From a Mistake at Ellis Island
Your Family Name Did Not Come From a Mistake at Ellis Island
10 Words Shakespeare Used With Unclear Meanings
Is Speaking a Language Different From Being Fluent in It?
Are you bilingual, trilingual, or multilingual? A polyglot or hyperpolyglot?
7 Obscure Literary Devices
10 Words & Phrases Coined in Comic Strips
Cartoons, comics, and newspaper comic strips might seem like an unusual source of new words and phrases, but here are the stories behind 10 times when precisely that happened.
The Unusual Syntax of “Sexiest Man Alive”
In the wake of People magazine’s announcement of its choice for this year’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” our thoughts, naturally, turn to the unusual syntax of this phrase.
The Origins of 62 Last Names
'Smith' is an Old English name that was given to those who worked with metal. It's probably related to a word that meant "to strike." Where does your last name come from?