WORDS
11 Terms from a Knock-Your-Socks-Off 1943 Song about Slang
"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.
The Origins of 10 Great Insults
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.
How Many Languages is it Possible to Know?
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
6 Words English Got From Hindi
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.
11 Phrases from Downton Abbey to Bolster Your Vocabulary
As we've been following the trials and tribulations of the Granthams, Angela Tung of Wordnik has been collecting interesting terms from the show.
11 Lesser-Known Names for Baby Animals
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?
11 Words That Don't Mean What They Sound Like
'Formication' may sound sexy, but it actually means "an abnormal sensation as of ants creeping over the skin."
18 Complicated Scientific Ideas Explained Simply
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.
How Many Words Do "Eskimos" Really Have for Snow?
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.
50 Collective Nouns to Bolster Your Vocabulary
Start working these into conversation.
Infographic Names 21 Emotions with No English Word Equivalents
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
Why Did "The Ukraine" Become Just "Ukraine"?
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?
12 Enjoyable Names for Relatively Common Things
Fancy yourself a logophile ... and didn't have to look up "logophile"? See if you know these 12 words for common things.
12 Common Words That Were Once Considered Terrible Jargon
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.
45 Everyday Words that Mean Something Different to WWII Navy Veterans
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
The Word "Droid" is a Registered Trademark of LucasFilm Ltd.
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
Why Are Potatoes Called Spuds?
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his "Daily Knowledge" newsletter, click
10 Historical Euphemisms for Infidelity
Here are 10 historical slang terms and euphemisms for infidelity that you probably won’t see in headlines today.
19 Confounding Discrepancies Between American English and British English
Don’t freak out if your flatmate says he will be sure to knock you up in the morning.
26 Beatnik Slang Phrases You Should Start Using
Plenty of phrases from the first self-described hipster generation have lasted into modern conversation: people still get bent out of shape, annoying people bug us and muscular guys are still built, just to scan the b-words. Here are 26 words and phrases
11 Words With Politically Incorrect Etymologies
At various moments in its life, a word will hop languages, change meanings, travel through sinister moments and land in pleasant ones. But no matter how many times it’s superimposed, and how far it gets from its original source, a word doesn’t let go of i
19 Old-Timey Slang Terms to Bolster Your Vocabulary
Happy cabbage: A sizable amount of money to be spent on self-satisfying things.
53 Modern Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
The Oxford Dictionary Online is a warehouse of over 600,000 words. Despite this large arsenal, we continue to coin, clip, and blend new words into existence.