LANGUAGE

18 Common Words That Have Unexpected Science Definitions

You keep using that word…

How Discussions of Drugs and Death Have Changed Over the Past 200 Years

What 'drug' means to you depends on when you lived.

50 Spanish-English False Friend Words

Sometimes words with the same origin take a separate path in each language, or words with different origins resemble each other by coincidence. That can mean trouble.

30 Family Secrets Hiding in English Surnames

It’s easy to guess what an ancestor of someone named Cook, Carpenter, or Smith did for a living. With other occupational surnames, though, either the word or the trade has become obsolete, so the meaning is hidden.

Auribus teneo lupum means "holding a wolf by the ears."

20 Latin Phrases You Should Be Using

Next time you spot a misbehaving child, or you want to seize the night rather than the day, you’ll have the perfect phrase at hand.

9 Old-Fashioned Words for the Fickle

Make sure to use them the next time you dither.

How 10 Pieces of Furniture Got Their Names

Why is your favorite place to relax called a couch?

16 Buggy Ways to Say Mosquito

You might be one of a lucky type who rarely attract bites, or you might be someone skeeters love to feast on—in which case, you’ll want plenty of ammunition for name-calling. Here are a few choice terms for mosquitoes courtesy of the Dictionary of America

Two swordsmen participating in the fencing semifinals during the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London.

The Etymology of 15 Weird and Wonderful Olympic Words

Wow your friends during your Olympic watch party with these winning, weird, and wonderful Olympic words and their origins.

Athletes Are Finally Getting Accent Marks On Their Jerseys

A tilde can mean the difference between "pain" and "rock."

7 Words That Mean The Opposite Of What They Used To

While 'awesome' was going on its journey from bad to good, 'awful' was going in the opposite direction.

Scholars Have Been Working on a Dictionary of Old English For 46 Years

The University of Toronto-based project aims to define every English word used between 600 CE and 1150.

What's the Most Metal Word?

Hint: It's not 'secretary.'

An Orangutan in Indianapolis Has Learned to Ape Human Speech

Rocky’s ability to reproduce human-like noises contradicts the idea that apes can only ever use the sounds they’ve always used.

11 Ways to Make Learning Arabic (Slightly) Easier

Any book that promises mastery in months is lying; more accurate is the common teachers’ adage “Seven years to learn it, a lifetime to master it.”

Pittsburgh Public Art Office Looking for Klingon, Elvish, and Dothraki Speakers

It’s time to dust off your Dothraki!

Kjoonlee via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

11 Fun Facts About the International Phonetic Alphabet

Every writing system represents speech a little differently, and no system is completely faithful to how words are actually pronounced. For over a century, the International Phonetic Alphabet has tried to remedy this situation by providing a way to accura