WORDS

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10 Old English Words You Need to Be Using

If you learn just a few words in Old English, be sure to include the one that means "lying awake before dawn and worrying."

7 Bartending Terms and What They Actually Mean

Know your bar slang.

OliverChilds (knife), Ajwad Creative (speech bubble) // iStock via Getty Images Plus

8 Slasher Slang Terms, Dissected

Movies like 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween' have spawned sequels, remakes, imitations, and parodies—and they’ve also unleashed a whole of host of slasher slang.

Dictionary.com Explains How a Word Becomes “A Word”

17 Crude Names for Your Significant Other from the 18th Century

The Story That Launched Nellie Bly’s Famed Journalism Career

10 Cold War Terms Used in The Americans

The latest season of The Americans is wrapping up tonight, so it's time to make like deep-cover 1980s Soviet agents Philip and Elizabeth Jenkins, put on a wig, and take surveillance of these 10 spy and Cold War terms.

Kimmy Robertson in 'Twin Peaks: The Return' (2017).

10 Terms from 'Twin Peaks,' Explained

Pour yourself a damn fine cup of coffee and revisit these 10 terms from 'Twin Peaks'?

20 Bitter Definitions from The Cynic's Word Book

12 'X-Files' Terms and the Truth Behind Them

To "Mulder it out" is a phrase that should definitely be used more often.

5 Fascinating Facts About Girl Scout Cookie Names

Girl Scout Cookie Naming Lore: Would You Like Samoa?

What's the Difference Between i.e. & e.g.?

What they mean and how to remember the difference.

Why Is It “Woe Is Me” Instead Of “I Am Woe”?

15 Pairs of Words That Seem Etymologically Related, But Aren’t

Words suggest one thing, but their histories tell us another.

Portrait of Robert Burns, painted by Alexander Nasmyth.

14 Scots Words from the Works of Robert Burns

Polish up on this list of words and phrases from Robert Burns’s complete works. Highlighting the imagination of his Scots language, they are ripe for revival by Robbie revelers old and new.

12 Distant Places In The Solar System (And What They’re Named After)

15 Words and Phrases from 1915

Terms that first appeared in print in 1915 reveal something about life a hundred years ago. Although the war in Europe left its mark on the lexicon, there are also signs of the changing times in arts and culture.

13 Words of the Year from Other Countries

The U.S. words of the year for 2014 included vape, culture, and #blacklivesmatter. But what about the rest of the world? Here are the word of the year winners from 13 other countries.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is 'Culture'

There were a number of attention-getting words this year, from bae, to normcore, to vape. But a word need not be shiny and new to get special attention.

10 Words With Roots in Lesser-Known Languages

The 11 Best New Words Added to Oxford Dictionaries

The editors at OxfordDictionaries.com just added 1,000 new words to their online dictionary.

10 Words & Phrases Coined in Comic Strips

Cartoons, comics, and newspaper comic strips might seem like an unusual source of new words and phrases, but here are the stories behind 10 times when precisely that happened.

The Origins of 62 Last Names

'Smith' is an Old English name that was given to those who worked with metal. It's probably related to a word that meant "to strike." Where does your last name come from?

The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is Vape

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