4 Good Reasons Why People Say “I Could Care Less”
It turns out, there are a number of things about English that conspire to make “I could care less” a less irrational phrase than it might seem.
It turns out, there are a number of things about English that conspire to make “I could care less” a less irrational phrase than it might seem.
Here are five storytelling terms to store away for movie trivia night.
Leaving aside for now the few foreign loanwords (e.g., Qatar, Iraq) where Q shows up without a U, an English Q is the only letter that can't go anywhere without a partner. Why does a Q always need a U? We can blame it on a whole bunch of our alphabetic an
Prii? LEGO? Twix?
From reality TV shows to The Beach Boys’ croons of Aruba and Jamaica, references to honeymoons are everywhere. But where did the term "honeymoon" first come from?
Whether you're deciphering a cryptic state seal or trying to impress your Catholic in-laws, knowing some Latin has its advantages.
Some situations are just too perfect for words, but these bits of lovely lingo will shorten that list ever so slightly.
Every once in awhile, commenters hit on something I probably should have known, but for whatever reason didn’t. We are always learning. Or should be, at least.
If you like languages, you’ll love The Great Language Game. Data scientist Lars Yencken was inspired by his love of languages to create a simple game where you listen to a sample of a language, and then have to guess which language it is.
It has been two years since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed as a military policy, but it seems to have taken up residence in our storehouse of ready-made expressions for good, which is not surprising, considering how succinctly it captures a particul
Travel back to a time when 'lady’s low toupee' and 'Master John Goodfellow' were perfectly acceptable terms for genitalia.
With the 1980 census, a three-part question was adopted that applied to everyone, giving a more complete picture of language in the U.S.
Is there any suffix more adorable than the lovely little –ling? It gives us yearlings and starlings, downy ducklings and goslings, affectionate darlings and siblings, and comforting tender dumplings. But –ling hasn’t always been so little and cute. It use
In 1992 in Japan, Fernandez Verde combined English language instruction with awkward aerobic movements to create the early morning TV show Eikaiwa taisō Zuiikin' English.
Light Warlpiri only has 350 native speakers, and none of them are older than 35 years old.
“Blown to smithereens” is such a great, colorful phrase. Almost everyone knows exactly what you mean, without being able to define what exactly a smithereen is. What the heck are they?
Some of the biggest and most lasting changes to language happen slowly and imperceptibly—but these days, it's possible to spot subtle linguistic changes by analyzing large digital collections of text.
These passages from old English textbooks aren't wrong—but they don't sound quite right, either.
So you think you have the fortitude to learn Klingon? Let's find out.
Chinese characters are made up of strokes. Learning to write them involves not only learning where all the strokes go, but also the order in which they are supposed to be written and the direction of each individual stroke (left to right, up to down, etc.
Rules of language games in other languages may vary, but here are some general guidelines for fun in 11 different languages.
It goes back to German anthropologist Friedrich Blumenbach.
If you're a kid learning how to write, English spelling can seem like a cruel prank.