From the Archive

Pierre and Marie Curie. Image Credit: Getty

We have Julia Child's husband to thank for introducing her to French cuisine.

Massimo Bottura at the 2012 Olympics. Image credit: Dino Panato/Getty

His "Refettorios" have fed communities in Rio and Milan.

Use these the next time you need to pray to the porcelain god.

These magicians pushed things too far.

New toilet paper dispensers with facial recognition software may prevent thieves from swiping sheets of toilet paper from bathrooms at tourist sites.

When Houdini stepped onto a London stage in 1900, he was immediately heckled by Cirnoc, who challenged his status as "King of Handcuffs."

What does painting—and, for that matter, painting things red—have to do with what Merriam-Webster defines as “to go out drinking, dancing, etc.”?

In the process, Romanian dictionary DEX also fooled a few innocent bystanders.

“Someone sent their mother's lung to us in the mail. He believed his mother had been murdered, and he wanted us to send the lung out for testing.”

Take the quiz!

Planning a Hayao Miyazaki movie night? Skip the soda, and pair your popcorn with one of these brews.

Canadian English enthusiasts rejoice! For the first time since 1967, A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles has gotten a major update.

'Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries' is a captivating inside look at the job of dictionary making from both a personal and historical angle.

"Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for "quick."

Conservators at the Ransom Center weren't quite sure what they'd find.

When something—say, a canyon or mistake—is truly enormous, the same old small time words like colossal and massive don’t always get the job done.

Take a deeper look into the names we see every day.

Loreless—some lacking in lore—is a rare old word for ignorance.

Next time you feel the urge to make your sparring partner aware of his lack of knowledge, soften the blow with one of these old-timey terms for ignorance.