LANGUAGE

How Ancient Rome’s Scariest Ghosts Gave Their Name to Madagascar’s Lemurs

Though lemurs hail from Madagascar, they have a ghostly connection to Ancient Roman folklore.

Eliminate ‘Um’ from Your Speech with a New App

Or don't. We're not judging.

Jeangagnon, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Canadian MP Gives Speech in Mohawk in Parliament for the First Time

Marc Miller of Montreal spoke in Mohawk to honor the beginning of Aboriginal History Month

Name the Body Part That's Part of the Saying

Take the quiz!

Why call him a drunkard when you could call him a borachio?

30 Excellent Terms From a 17th Century Slang Dictionary

If you’ve ever wanted to talk like a 17th century swindler, these terms from 'A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew' give you your chance.

How Color Vocabularies Evolved Around the World

The order in which color words emerge in different languages follows a pattern.

Learn a Language While You Wait for People to Respond to Your Gchats

An MIT project is trying to help people learn during brief moments of online waiting.

11 Strange Shakespeare Adaptations

Happy Talk Like Shakespeare Day!

The Most Common Second Languages Spoken Around the World

English is extremely popular as a second language, but some of the other commonly spoken second languages might surprise you.

English Doesn’t Have a Word for This Color, but Japanese Does

While we might call it "light blue" or "sky blue," in Japan, "mizu" is considered a totally unique color.

Printer's Error, Harper Collins // Type: Ross MacDonald // Photo by Rebecca Romney

10 Everyday Phrases That Come from Printing

Stereotype, cliche, ditto, and more.

The 19th Century Aristocrat Who Literally Painted The Town Red

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.”?

Netflix Wants to Pay You to Translate Its Subtitles

No more botched pop culture references.

14 Ways of Saying "Drunk" Across the United States

Three sheets to the wind, seeing double, and tanked are just the beginning of these tipsy terms from around the U.S.

Another Major Style Guide Has Accepted Singular ‘They’

It's been around for centuries, but long been considered a mistake.

Do Any Languages Besides English Have Homophones?

Sound-alike words are a worldwide source of confusion.

The Breakfast Club may have given us the word wastoid.

8 Slang Terms from The Breakfast Club, Decoded

While it’s easy to understand how the characters in 'The Breakfast Club' felt, sometimes it wasn’t so easy to understand what they were saying.

New Film Shows the Rich History of African American Speech

It's an in-depth look at one of the most politically charged and misunderstood varieties of American English.

Pink Used To Be Yellow (No, Really)

Look up the word pink in the dictionary, and you’ll probably find a lot more definitions than you might have expected. But of all the word’s meanings, the oldest on record is one that appears in only the most comprehensive dictionaries: Pink used to be ye

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

9 Old Words 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.

Online Dictionary Uses Simple Analogies to Decode Tech Jargon

Learn why internet cookies are like a barista with a good memory.

Why Do We Use the Same Voice to Talk to Babies and Dogs?

Nope, it's not because they're equally adorable.

10 Pointy Pieces of Slayer Slang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

From sitch to five by five, here are just a few of our Buffy the Vampire Slayer slang terms in honor of the 20th anniversary of the show's debut.

11 Words Coined 100 Years Ago

"O.M.G." made its first documented appearance a century ago—in a letter to Winston Churchill.

PREV NEXT