Words

Big Question

What's So Special About the Cat's Pajamas?

Yesterday reader Nyghtbeauty asked, "What’s so special about 'the cat’s pajamas'?" We decided to find... READ ON

Big Question

Why Are the Letters in ABC Order?

The alphabet, as best as historians can tell, got its start in ancient Egypt sometime in the Middle Bronze Age, but not with the Egyptians. They were, at the time, writing with a set of hieroglyphs that were used both as representations of the consonants of their language and as logographs (a logograph or logogram is a letter, symbol, or sign used to represent an entire word). While the glyphs were sort of alphabetic in nature, they were used more for their logographic component than as “letters.”... READ ON

List

17 Vowel-Free Words Acceptable in 'Words With Friends'

Don’t be down about your next panel of consonants. Instead, take the challenge as an opportunity to show off your newly acquired vowel-free vocabulary. Three-Letter... READ ON

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14 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent

Earlier this year, Bill DeMain introduced us to 15 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent. Now that you've integrated those into your vocabulary, here are 14... READ ON

Article

A Song About Eponyms

NPR brings us "Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun" -- a song about eponyms. It's a nice introduction to the term, and includes one I hadn't heard about before: the origin of the word "dunce." Enjoy, my fellow word nerds: Music and animation by Adam Cole. For further reading, check out our extensive coverage of eponyms: The Eponym Quiz; Eponym Vocab Rehab; Weekend Word Wrap: eponyms; Debunking Etymological Myths; and 10 Awful Words and the People They're Named... READ ON

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The Quick 10: 10 More Trademarked Words

After we published our list of 25 Brand Names People Incorrectly Use as Generic Terms, our wonderful readers responded with a host of other trademarked words and brand names that often get used as nouns and verbs. Here are 10 more! 1. JC wrote that Dumpster is a brand name, which is true, although the word has become largely genericized and the trademark is not widely enforced. The Dumpster got its name from the Dempster Brothers Inc., who combined their name with the word “dump” to create the... READ ON

Article

A Brief History of the Absolutely Amazing "A"

Most modern alphabets start with the letter “A,” or a near equivalent. It was also first in line in the ancient Greek and Phoenician—from which the Modern English alphabet is ultimately descended—alphabets, too. Being the gateway to the other letters and to literacy, “A” has rich symbolic value. Grouped with “B” and “C,” or even standing all alone, it can represent the whole alphabet and the learning of it. When that trio is written on a blackboard, there’s no having to guess what... READ ON

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25 Words You Might Not Know Are Trademarked

Many of the items we use every day, like zippers and escalators, were once brand names. Even heroin, which no one should use any day, was a brand name. Here are some trademarked names that are often used as generic terms... READ ON

Article

The Late Movies: The History of the English Language in Ten Minutes

Do you have ten minutes to devote to a funny, cheeky, nerdy look at the history of the English language? Of course you do. Read this description: Where did the phrase 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' come from? And when did scientists finally get round to naming sexual body parts? Voiced by Clive Anderson, this entertaining romp through 'The History of English' squeezes 1600 years of history into 10 one-minute bites, uncovering the sources of English words and phrases from Shakespeare and the King James... READ ON

Article

The Elusive Hapax Legomenon

A hapax legomenon (often abbreviated just to hapax) is a word which appears only once -- in a language, a single written work, or the entire body of work of a given author. According to Wikipedia: "Hapax legomenon is a transliteration of Greek ???? ?????????, meaning '(something) said (only) once.'" Hapaxes are everywhere, particularly in historical texts -- indeed, many of the remaining untranslated hieroglyphs appear to be hapaxes, possibly because we lack enough text to see them more frequently --... READ ON