"It's easy to forget that some of the English language's most common words had real-life namesakes in living, breathing people." Life Magazine has put together a slide show of some of the most notable eponyms, from Henry Shrapnel to Etienne Silhouette. Check it out here.

The New Oxford American Dictionary has released its third edition, and in the time-honored tradition of lexicographical publicity, a sampling of the dictionary's new words and phrases has been making the rounds. Some have griped that the list "reads like a list of Twitter trending topics" that is designed "to bait bloggers, who really are obsessed with the Interweb." Is the list too preoccupied with evanescent online culture? You be the judge!  Continue reading...

Did you know that Friday, September 24th is National Punctuation Day? Get in the mood by submitting an entry to the Punctuation Haiku Contest, sponsored by the organizers of NPD. Read all about it here.

On Bloggingheads, Visual Thesaurus executive producer Ben Zimmer joins fellow linguist John McWhorter to talk about a wide range of language issues, from new approaches to the teaching of English to the language of "Mad Men." Watch the conversation here.

"Jumping the shark," a phrase used to describe the moment a TV series goes downhill, alludes to a notorious episode of "Happy Days." Now the writer of the episode has spoken out in the Los Angeles Times. Read the story behind the phrase here.

The folks at Merriam-Webster have been keeping track of the most looked-up words in their online dictionary this summer. At number one is Sarah Palin's refudiate, which you won't find in any dictionary (yet). Read all about it here, and read about the runners-up here.

The Oxford Dictionary of English has announced the addition of more than 2,000 new terms. Meet the turducken ("a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey") and other new entries in the official announcement from Oxford here, and in dictionary editor Catherine Soanes' interview with National Public Radio here.