In 1803, a shy British pharmacist wrote a pamphlet that made him a reluctant celebrity. The reason? He proposed a revolutionary new system for classifying clouds — with Latin names we still use today, like cumulus, cirrus, and stratus. Also: when...
Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun “I,” but not any other pronoun? Also, the romantic story behind the term halcyon days, the origin of the phrase “like white on rice,” and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the...
It’s a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it who or whom? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague’s email signature, but he’s not sure it’s 100% grammatical. The sentence:...
paladin gun n.— «But all three men are in jobs that have great potential for putting them in harm’s way. Charles loads artillery shells in what is known as a paladin gun.» —“Iredell’s brothers in arms” by Jim...
self-embedding n.— «Health officials in Chicago are warning about a growing trend among teenagers who inflict pain on themselves by inserting foreign objects under their skin. The practice, called “self embedding,” is similar...
jughead n.— «There has long been a rivalry between the “runners” as the thoroughbreds are more commonly called, and the “jugheads” which running horse people sometimes call standardbreds.» —“Jockeys at great...