Arika Okrent

Joined: Nov 21, 2012

Linguist, author of In the Land of Invented Languages, living in Chicago, doing her part to fight off the cot-caught merger and keep "gym shoes" alive.

23 Hipster Baby Name Ideas From the Dictionary of Medieval Names

The Peppy ’80s Song “Vamos a la Playa” Was Actually About Nuclear War

11 Suffixes That Gave Us New (And Often Terrible) Words

16 Words that Describe Themselves

You might be familiar with a few of these.

From Y’all To Youse: 8 English Ways to Make ‘You’ Plural

Lots of languages have distinct plural forms for ‘you.’ Wouldn’t it be useful if English had one too? Spoiler alert: It does. Several, in fact.

It’s not just women who will find these terms useful.

24 Words From Laádan, a Language Invented to Express a Woman’s Point of View

‘Radíidin’ means “a time allegedly a holiday but actually so much a burden because of work and preparations that it is a dreaded occasion.” ‘Thehena’ is a word for “Joy despite negative circumstances.”

This stickler doesn’t like how people are using the word ‘phenomenal.’

9 Linguistic ‘Ignorantisms’ Even Sticklers Got Used To

Not even the strictest sticklers seem to care about how we use words like ‘abhorrent’ and ‘sodden’ anymore.

A wooden tablet covered in still-undeciphered Rongorongo script.

8 Ancient Writing Systems That Haven’t Been Deciphered Yet

Without a Rosetta Stone for these centuries-old writing systems, the meaning of the texts may never be known.

10 Language Mistakes Kids Make That Are Actually Pretty Smart

These mistakes show that little kids know a lot more about the rules than we think.

These words are the language of love (literally).

11 Words You Might Not Realize Come From ‘Love’

Whether it's bacteria, a city name, or a day of the week, love can be found in unexpected places—including our vocabulary.

11 Common Words With Very Specific Meanings on Food Labels in the U.S.

Sometimes regular English words—words that have commonsense but slightly fuzzy meanings—must be defined more precisely for food labeling.

A stack of gifts ... or are they presents?

What’s the Difference Between a Gift and a Present?

Those brightly wrapped packages we exchange around the holidays and other special occasions: Sometimes we call them “gifts,” sometimes “presents.” Is there a difference?

Thanksgiving is a day filled with small rituals.

7 Overlooked Thanksgiving Rituals, According to Sociologists

The first major sociological study of Thanksgiving appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research in 1991. Here’s what the authors learned.

It’s kind of weird that ‘ghost’ is spelled with a ‘gh.’

Why are ‘Ghost,’ ‘Ghastly,’ and ‘Ghoul’ Spelled with ‘gh’?

Only a handful of English words start with ‘gh’—what gives?

Identify whether you're feeling angst, ennui, or weltschmerz with this handy guide.

How to Tell Whether You've Got Angst, Ennui, or Weltschmerz

English never hesitates to borrow words that would lose certain subtleties in translation, and angst, ennui, and weltschmerz have made their way into English by offering a little something extra.

A sign in Irish on Achill Island in Ireland.

8 Fun Facts About the Irish Language

You may hear an "Erin go bragh" or two, but even on the most Irish of holidays, we don't hear much of the Irish language—which is a shame.