The English word prestige derives from the Latin word praestigia, which means “trick,” “deceit,” or “illusion.” Its meaning evolved to connote “glamorous, impressive influence.” Originally in English, the word prestige was pronounced with the...
We all lead busy lives—so are speed reading courses a good idea? Plus, if you hear someone speaking with a British accent, do you tend to assume they’re somehow more intelligent? And some common English surnames tell us stories about life in the...
You know how it is when you encounter a word and then suddenly you start noticing it everywhere? One that’s seemed to pop up is cray, or cray-cray, a slang variant of crazy. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cray” There’s something...
tweening n.— «When Disney’s artists created dancing mushrooms almost 70 years ago, they did so by drawing still pictures on dozens of celluloid pages, or “cels.” But, Lopez and his fellow students are learning to use a computer program called Adobe...
sleeveface n.— «Sleeveface is the art of “one or more persons obscurings or augmenting any part of the body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.”» —“Pic post: Sleevefaces” by movielooney Oh No They D!dn’t Dec. 25, 2007. (source:...
box jumper n.— «I hate enclosed spaces, which people find amazing because in illusions I’m pushing other people into boxes or tight little spaces. People who get into those contraptions are called box jumpers and that’s something that I could never...