"There are some old words," explains Arika Okrent on Mental Floss, "that are nearly obsolete but we still recognize because they were lucky enough to get stuck in set phrases that have lasted across the centuries." Okrent lists a dozen "lucky words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms."
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Word Count
Writers Talk About Writing
Letter Perfect: Why English is So Hard
June 18, 2013
The cashier at the fancy foods store was from Bosnia. "I have so much hard time with English," she said. "Why when you add one letter does whole word change?"
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Teachers at Work
A column about teaching
Turning the Page: Short Fiction for English Language Learners
June 17, 2013
By Fitch O'Connell
Getting to grips with stories in the EFL environment is more than simply dealing with problematic vocabulary. It's all to do with context, and how words work together to form a greater whole.
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Word Routes
Exploring the pathways of our lexicon
Would You Prefer a "Cronut" or a "Dossant"?
June 14, 2013
By Ben Zimmer
A Manhattan bakery has sparked a craze for "cronuts," or croissant-doughnut hybrids. Imitators have countered with their own hybrids using names like dossant or doissant.
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Automatically create lists of vocabulary from any text
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You might have seen a set of American English dialect maps making the rounds online after a Business Insider piece about the maps went viral. But where does all of that survey data come from? Our own Ben Zimmer has the story on Language Log — read his post here.
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Visual Thesaurus contributor James Harbeck recently appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition to give a phonetic breakdown of noises that teenagers often make. Listen to the segment here, and read more about teenage sounds on The Week here. Breathy-voiced long low back unrounded vowel with advanced tongue root, anyone?
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Writing Prompts for Students: How to Strike the Right Balance
June 4, 2013
- 1 Comment
2013 Spelling Bee: Arvind Mahankali Turns "German Curse" Into "German Blessing"
May 31, 2013
- 5 Comments
How to Teach Setting: Beyond Time and Place
May 29, 2013
- 4 Comments
Leaning Back to Look at "Lean In"
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May 23, 2013
- 1 Comment
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OVERHEARD
RECENT COMMENTS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS
When Words Get Fossilized
Sue B. said,
"It's good to know these details about these words. They are some of my favorites, and their usual modern usages I find charming. Or at least, mostly..."
- Today, 4:10 AM
Letter Perfect: Why English is So Hard
Roberta M. said,
"English is, to my mind, a trade language. It is something patched together out of many different languages to allow people to communicate well enough..."
- Yesterday, 11:59 AM
Kathleen C. said,
"The premise here...that the meaning of words can be changed by adding or subtracting a letter...is so patently obvious that I can't imagine why..."
- Yesterday, 11:42 AM
Orin Hargraves said,
"Great article. Reminds me of seeing a foreign colleague at a conference recently. She was talking about LinkedIn, which she pronounced with three..."
- Yesterday, 8:27 AM
Geoffrey BH said,
"Of, "But "door jam" would probably make the door stick, and is incorrect to boot.", I suggest that it might be necessary to boot a door that was..."
- Yesterday, 5:12 AM
Turning the Page: Short Fiction for English Language Learners
mike H. said,
"If not read what do they do for fun?
Mike"
- Monday June 17th, 5:12 PM
Ingrid A. V. said,
"Interesting and touching story, the message essentially being "Yes we can!" A real love story!"
- Monday June 17th, 1:20 AM
Would You Prefer a "Cronut" or a "Dossant"?
Meredith C. said,
"Not at all, Saul. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud."
- Saturday June 15th, 9:32 PM
Saul G. said,
"Thank you, Meredith. I agree with your assessment of the pronouncability issue; I wasn't really happy with it myself, but it was the best I could do..."
- Saturday June 15th, 8:17 PM
Nancy Friedman said,
"I won't believe it's half croissant until it's pronounced KWA-nut."
- Friday June 14th, 9:15 AM
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Put the VT to work in your classroom
"Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair": Sound Devices in Shakespeare's "Macbeth"
April 30, 2013
In this lesson, students use the Visual Thesaurus to explore the pronunciation and meaning of several key vocabulary words in Macbeth. They then examine how Shakespeare uses these vocabulary words to enhance the text through the sound devices of alliteration and assonance.
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The Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held next week, and to celebrate the occasion we have a spelling-themed crossword. Figure it out and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
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We've just released a new version of the Visual Thesaurus that works for the iPad and the iPhone, at no extra cost to subscribers. And whether you're using the VT in your Web browser, on your iPhone, or on your iPad, you'll enjoy lightning-fast load times.
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