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Mental Floss

WORDS

Get ready to step into the squared circle.

25 Pro Wrestling Slang Terms You Should Know

You don’t need to be a smark to appreciate these pro wrestling slang terms (but it might help).

Scott Beggs

African American English derives from a historical past of contact between multiple language speakers. It varies across age, ethnicity, class, and gender. There is more than one AAE.

10 Things To Know About African American Language

African descendants in the U.S. have been speaking varieties of English, today known as African American Language (AAL), for many centuries. Here's what you should know.

Renée Blake, Kimberley Baxter

13 Cool Slang Terms From the 1950s

From 'beatnik' to 'backseat bingo,' here are some notable pieces of lingo popularized in the 1950s.

Michele Debczak



'Clatterfart' and 'twattle-basket' are way more entertaining than 'chatterbox.'

15 Words for Gossips and Chatterboxes

We all know someone who never seems to stop talking. They’re a yammerer, a babbler, a chatterbox—but they’re also a blatherskite, a clatterfart, and a twattle-basket.

Paul Anthony Jones


A lorry by any other name would carry as much cargo.

Why Are Trucks Called “Lorries” in the UK?

It wasn’t inspired by a beast of burden named Laurie, if that’s what you assumed.

Ellen Gutoskey


The word wasn't originally 'pea.'

11 Words That Started Out As Spelling Mistakes

Language is a continual process of evolution, but these words—from pea to sherry—changed thanks to outright mistakes.

Paul Anthony Jones


What does the word 'the' mean, anyway?

What Does "The" Mean?

It’s the most frequent word in the English language, accounting for around 4 percent of all the words we write or speak. But what the word 'the' means is surprisingly complicated.

Arika Okrent
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