LINGUISTICS

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made with turnips, not pumpkins.

From ‘skeletons in the closet’ to ‘graveyard shift,’ here’s how five eerie idioms came to be.

‘Bookworm,’ which now implies someone is well-read, once meant that you were a total loser.

There's a fancy term for forgetting a word—'lethologica.'

The connections between words aren’t always as straightforward as the link between ‘run’ and ‘runner’; often, figuring them out requires the subtle unraveling of linguistic evolution, the kind of detective work that makes etymology so fascinating.

There’s a historical reason, but there may be a social one as well.

Code-switching goes beyond language—here's what it means and why it happens.

‘Codebreaking: A Practical Guide’ can teach a beginner how to break into codebreaking (and an expert how to up their game).

From “Milk Drinkers Turn to Powder” to “Indian Ocean Talks,” these funny news headlines will make you say, “Wait, what?”

Why is February spelled the way it is? Delve into the linguistic evolution of the month’s name and its journey from Latin to modern English.

Opening a can of worms, metaphorically speaking, is trying to solve a problem and ending up in more trouble. And the idiom really does refer to actual worms.