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We鈥檙e in the dog days of summer, at least where I live 鈥� over 90 degrees and humid. According to ancient Greeks, it's thanks to Sirius, the Dog Star.
The first words we speak are reduplicative. Around the world, babies refer to their parents by simple, repeating syllables: mama, tata, and so on.
A fruit-related idiom was produced when the Psalms were first translated into Old English in the 10th century.
When the idiom 鈥渟mall potatoes鈥� first appeared in 1836, its meaning was clear. Today, some children haven鈥檛 even heard it before.
The news right now is full of words like limbo. Perhaps it would be more optimistic to look at this summer as 鈥渓iminal,鈥� not 鈥渋n limbo.鈥�
As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, large numbers like googols 鈥渄on鈥檛 count things, but instead count the ways things can happen.鈥�
We think English words for numbers are precise. But language is slippery, and a hundred is not always 100, nor is a billion always 1,000,000,000.
Animals vocalize more or less the same way, whether they're in France or America 鈥� so why do they 鈥渟peak鈥� so differently in human languages?
This 鈥渓anguage鈥� is characterized by simple phrases and inventive spellings (smol for 鈥渟mall,鈥� bork for 鈥渂ark鈥�). For example: 鈥淧upperino did a blep!鈥�
鈥淭l;dr鈥� is the only internet abbreviation I know of that boasts a perfectly used semicolon. Where did the acronym originate?
People have been using various kinds of isolation to protect themselves and others, and to inspire moral and spiritual growth, for centuries.
In English we say 鈥淎pril showers bring May flowers鈥� or 鈥淚f life gives you lemons, make lemonade.鈥� How are these ideas expressed in other languages?
English speakers disagree 鈥� sometimes vehemently 鈥� about how to use 鈥渉istoric鈥� and 鈥渉istorical鈥� with the indefinite articles a/an.
The meanings and negative associations of moist make it ugly, just as positive associations can make other words seem lovely.
It turns out that the words that English speakers find pleasing are more like papillon and less like Aschenputtel, according to phonaesthetics.
How did czar, royal title of the rulers of Russia until 1917, become so prevalent in the United States?
It turns out that apples and the Empire State are indeed closely connected, though interestingly, the 鈥淏ig Apple鈥� nickname came first.
Does the language you speak determine what thoughts are possible and what things cannot be thought because your language lacks the words?
The question of how many words for snow a language has depends on which one you鈥檙e talking about. Then there鈥檚 the issue of what counts as a word.
Today, this construction can be celebrated as poetic, or stigmatized as incorrect and 鈥渦neducated,鈥� depending on who is doing the a-ing.
