The exclamation shiver me timbers! has nothing to do with being cold. A different verb shiver means “to shatter into small pieces,” and timbers refers to the wooden beams that make up the structure of a ship’s hull and ribs. Sailors once used...
Claire from San Antonio, Texas, has a story about misunderstanding a word when she was young. When she saw a book with thesaurus on the cover, she grabbed it and started reading, thinking she was about to learn about a new type of dinosaur. This is...
A thesaurus, a collection of synonyms, derives its name from the Latin word thesaurus, or literally, “treasury.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Origin of the Word “Thesaurus”” I got a call from...
Steganography is the practice of concealing messages within text, digitized data, or other objects. The word derives from Greek words that mean “covered writing.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
If you need proof that language is powerful, here’s some. Researchers at Cornell recently reported that kids are more likely to eat their veggies if they’re told the food has enticing names like “X-ray Vision Carrots” and...
bluebird day n.— «It was warm and sunny, what duck hunters refer to as a bluebird day; great for lounging and talking about ducks but not the preferred nasty weather that gets the birds flying.» —“Waterfowler’s rig is rooted in...