An ode to proofreaders.... READ ON
There's a lot of language in movies that you can't show on TV. We're so used to the standard ways of dubbing over words for TV that we hardly notice them—but sometimes the dubs or alternate versions do something so unusual that they stand out.... READ ON
You're about to stumble into the looking-glass world of “contronyms”—words that are their own antonyms.... READ ON
Taboos against what we would consider pretty mild exclamations led swearers of years past to come up with creative substitutions, and they've left their mark on our vocabulary.... READ ON
A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles is a wonderful place to search or browse through the wordy history of our neighbors to the North.... READ ON
"Murder, He Says" gives a killer-diller run-down of all the hep words of the day, served up with some serious zest. About half of these terms have fallen out of use, but a bunch of them have lasted. Many of them got their start in the jazz world.... READ ON
On the 11th of every month, we post 11 lists of 11 items, and today Amanda Green gets us started!... READ ON
Here are the origins of some familiar insults that will make calling out all the rubes, bums, cretins, and punks in your life a more fulfilling experience. ... READ ON
There are millions of people, even in the mostly monolingual US, who speak more than one language at home. Competence in three languages is not unusual. But what about 10, 20, 30, 100 languages? What's the upper limit on the number of languages a person can know?... READ ON
5 Questions: Jimmy Hoffa
Lesser-Known Founding Fathers
The duffel bag is named for Duffel, Belgium, where the cloth used in the bags was originally sold.
