26 Unusual Plurals That Work Like "Attorneys General"
Some plurals work in unexpected ways.
Some plurals work in unexpected ways.
The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang pinpoints comedian Jimmy Durante as the first person to use this meaty metaphor.
Like many things, it all goes back to Shakespeare. Maybe.
What is a frown? A look of displeasure, made with the eyebrows? Or a sad face, made with downturned mouth?
It can be shocking to realize that we are able to follow rules that no one ever taught us explicitly.
One podcasting network is trying to help bring back America’s disappearing regional slang.
Sometime around the 7th century, a grammarian got fed up and started collecting all the annoying mistakes that people kept making in Latin. He wrote them up in the 'Appendix Probi,' a straightforward list of the “say this, not that” variety.
You know this rule, even if you don't know you know it.
You keep using that word…
What 'drug' means to you depends on when you lived.
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.
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.
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.
Make sure to use them the next time you dither.
Why is your favorite place to relax called a couch?
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
Wow your friends during your Olympic watch party with these winning, weird, and wonderful Olympic words and their origins.
A tilde can mean the difference between "pain" and "rock."
While 'awesome' was going on its journey from bad to good, 'awful' was going in the opposite direction.
If you've ever talked about "the birds and the bees" or referenced "the best laid plans of mice and men," then you've inadvertently quoted some of the English language's most famous poets.
The University of Toronto-based project aims to define every English word used between 600 CE and 1150.
Hint: It's not 'secretary.'
We all could use a few new words for the diabolical. Fortunately, there are plenty of older words ready for a revival.
If you’re grandiloquent, then you like to use extravagant, high-flown words—precisely like the 50 verbs listed here, which either refer to everyday activities or else can be used in place of everyday words.