Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words for Kids: 75 Tremendous Words: Neatly Defined to Stick in the Mind (Bookshop|Amazon) uses clever rhymes to help children learn big, fun-to-say words like magnanimous, discombobulated, and acquiesce. This...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...
Jennifer, an elementary-school teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, loves saying the term chockablock, meaning “closely packed together,” and wonders about its etymology. Chock can refer to a kind of wedge used to hold something in place...
Decisions by dictionary editors, wacky wordplay, and Walt Whitman’s soaring verse. How do lexicographers decide which historical figures deserve a mention or perhaps even an illustration in the dictionary? The answer changes with the times. •...
If someone’s balloon has lost its string, it means “they’ve come unmoored”. Something unusual or odd has come about in their character. Patrice Evans used the illustration in his description of Tracy Morgan in an article for...
illo n.— «Direct your gaze, if you will, to the illustration (or ‘‘illo,’’ as they say in the publishing game) in the center of this page.» —“Diablo Cody on Heroine Chic” by Diablo Cody Entertainment Weekly Jan...