Words

Ever wonder what you're supposed to be minding when your mind your p's and q's?

Does it have to do with pea coats? Or maybe Latin scribes?

Here’s (at least) one interesting way station each of these common words made on its journey to the present day, whether it’s an analysis of the Latin roots, a hypothesis about a proto-Indo-European origin, or a pivotal change in meaning.

Tomato, tomahto.

You just went to an art exhibit. Or was it an exhibition?

DJ Khaled, Amal Clooney, and Rami Malek.

Loosen up your jaws, lift up those eyebrows, and throw a little phlegm behind it: These 25 common Arabic names are constantly mispronounced.

This list is your Annie Oakley to fitting in at the carnival.

Start slipping these terms into conversation and watch as your friends bally about how great talking to you is.

The origins of the 1940s phrase 'cooking with gas' aren't clear-cut.

If you want to know what it was like to strike up a casual conversation in this mid-20th-century decade, we’re going to tell it like it is—with a list of the words and phrases any eager beaver would know well. Ready to find out what’s buzzin’, cousin?

Try out some of these words in your next Scrabble game.

Mind your Zs and Qs on National Scrabble Day. And it wouldn't hurt to know your anti-inflammatories.

How did ‘Scrabble’'s makers decide how many points each letter was worth? It started with an unemployed architect during the Great Depression, and it has stayed the same ever since.

The inventor of Scrabble was inspired by 'The Raven' author.

The game wouldn't exist if not for a minor plot point in a nearly two-century-old story.

Add these double-letter words to your player vocabulary to take advantage of the multiples on your tile rack.

You can flout these rules, but you can't flaunt them.

Roughly 288 populated places in the U.S. bear this name. Good thing we have zip codes.

Flip through the dictionary and you'll find all sorts of words hiding their bodily origins.

Some of our favorite words come from body parts. Scratch your 'caput' over the origins of these anatomically derived terms.

Behold: Denver Airport's 'Mustang' statue—or as Denverites call it, 'Blucifer.'

There are some very specific terms surrounding cow smells, elevation, and a sculpture that killed its own artist.

Nutella isn’t ‘Nut-tella,’ and other lies you’ve been told.

The phrase '86' may have originated in restaurants.

There are a few schools of thought. Some have more legs than others—such as those of the restaurant industry—but to this day, there is still no official etymology. Here are a few possibilities.