10 Old-Fashioned Swears to Spice up Your Cussin'
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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 c
During the British Raj, or dominion over India (1757-1947), English gained a number of words from Hindi and other Indian languages. Linguists refer to this as “borrowing,” but we’re not likely to return any of this linguistic wealth.
As we've been following the trials and tribulations of the Granthams, Angela Tung of Wordnik has been collecting interesting terms from the show.
We know that infant chickens are called chicks and baby ducks are called ducklings—but how should we refer to the newborn offspring of animals that don’t often get cooed over in their early developmental stages?
'Formication' may sound sexy, but it actually means "an abnormal sensation as of ants creeping over the skin."
Geologists Anne Jefferson and Chris Rowan created the Tumblr "Ten Hundred Words of Science" to collect examples of scientific text rendered into up-goer five speak.
Shakespeare is the first known citation for over a thousand words and even more meanings—but new research occasionally shows that Shakespeare actually didn't originate some phrases, a trend that will likely continue over time.
There are three answers: A heck of a lot, not that many, and a whole heck of a lot. Or, if you want specifics: 5, 2, and at least 99.
Start working these into conversation.
Ever feel embarrassed when you don't know how to say a word? Don't be. Even the most fluent English speakers—and, ahem, political figures—stumble. Besides, pronunciations change over time. See if you've been mispronouncing these common words.
While we may have many words we can use to represent our emotions, there are some feelings that no English word can describe. But that doesn't mean other languages don't have words for them—and as part of an ongoing project called Unspeakableness, design
Until a few decades ago, Ukraine was almost always referred to as the Ukraine. Then people started dropping the definite article, and now you almost never see it. What gives?
Fancy yourself a logophile ... and didn't have to look up "logophile"? See if you know these 12 words for common things.
In 1931, a Western Union official said that "there can be no apology for contact." Six years later, the word was number four on a list of the 10 most "overworked" words.
For most folks, the abdomen is the part of the body between the chest and the pelvis. For a generation of men who took to the seas during World War II, though, abdomen is also a 5.3-mile long uninhabited chunk of rock sitting somewhere in the middle of A
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his "Daily Knowledge" newsletter, click
Here are 10 historical slang terms and euphemisms for infidelity that you probably won’t see in headlines today.
Don’t freak out if your flatmate says he will be sure to knock you up in the morning.