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.

13 Things Made Collectible Thanks to Spelling Errors

If you don't know, then you know these grammar rules.

5 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know

26 of Noah Webster’s Spelling Changes That Didn’t Catch On

9 Words Created by Spelling Other Words Backwards

11 Little-Known Words for Specific Family Members

The words we use for family members in English are specific about some things, but vague about others. These words will help fill in the gaps.

23 Hipster Baby Name Ideas From the Dictionary of Medieval Names

Stand out from all the Noras and the Liams out there by choosing a medieval name like Hainfroy or Queniva.

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

The lyric “Vamos a la playa, todos con sombrero / El viento radiactivo, despeina los cabellos” translates to “Let’s go to the beach, everyone in a sombrero / The radioactive wind, messes up the hair.”

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

Here are some word endings that have become productive to varying degrees.

16 Words that Describe Themselves

Word is a word. Noun is a noun. Autological words are a self-centered, self-referential bunch.

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.