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Many hobbies 鈥� from gongoozling to scutelliphily 鈥� have odd names. But there's also a linguistic reasoning behind them.
In the 19th century, as middle-class leisure time increased, it became fashionable to pursue activities that would have previously seemed frivolous.
Instead of two people discussing where their perceptions of reality might differ, accusations of "gaslighting" shut down the conversation entirely.
According to Guinness World Records, the most challenging English tongue twister is 鈥淭he sixth sick sheikh鈥檚 sixth sheep鈥檚 sick.鈥�
What's in a phrase? How "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" went from describing an absurd, impossible feat to an American ideal.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been 鈥渉oist on his own petard." But what, exactly, does that phrase mean?
It's a 鈥渂ig black dog鈥� and not a 鈥渂lack big dog" 鈥� but why? Parsing the grammar that native English speakers know, but don鈥檛 know we know.
The word's connotations can lead to the dismissal of certain ideologies, closing off the chance to dig into understanding why people might hold them.
These words are indeed similar 鈥� and swapping the the word statue for statute would not have been an error in the Middle Ages.
As Democrats promote 'equity,' Republicans decry it as a mutation of 'equality.' But can both words 鈥� and parties 鈥� have the common good in mind?
In her new book, 鈥淗ighly Irregular," linguist Arika Okrent dives into English's hard questions 鈥� like why "tough," "through" and "dough" don't rhyme.
It's possible to argue the roots of 'competition' imply some sort of cooperation. But the word's history is all about defeating an opponent.
There is no etymological basis behind 'kangaroo words' 鈥� words with letters that, rearranged, can create synonyms to the host word. But they're fun.
Procrastination can be a bad thing. But Latin also has another word, otium, for doing things that enrich one鈥檚 life but don鈥檛 further one鈥檚 career.
Embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed. A Berliner is a man 鈥� and a pastry. And how did we get the name for the Yucat谩n Peninsula? We don't know.
The internet collects mistranslations found on T-shirts, menus, and instructions for tourists around the world. But there's beauty in those failures.
Some Americans are uncomfortable with a word that, despite its long history, conjures images of plantation slavery. Others object to the objections.
It's a learned, yet folksy, way to describe someone as unruly or troublesome. Its roots are innocuous, but it was also used to describe slaves.
The first English recipe for a salad, from 1425, directs the chef to assemble 14 vegetables and herbs. How did that evolve to fruit salad, or tuna?
Kindergarten signifies both a garden for children, where they can play, and also a garden of children, where they can grow and develop.
