On the first Monday in September, the United States observes Labor Day, while Canadians celebrate Labour Day. If you want to know why labour is the accepted spelling in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries like Canada, while Americans prefer labor (and color, favor, honor, humor, and neighbor), check out this classic Word Routes column by Ben Zimmer.

We were, needless to say, absolutely thrilled to learn that the Visual Thesaurus has inspired a short film, fittingly titled, "Word Cloud." The film was created by Claire Scholz of Rapid City, South Dakota, and stars Claire and her granddaughter Anna. It was prepared for a local family-run film festival, and we're honored to feature it here on our site as well.  Continue reading...

Another week, another update from a dictionary publisher reflecting recent additions to the lexicon. Last week, it was Merriam-Webster rolling out new words, including such eyebrow-raisers as f-bomb and sexting. Now comes Oxford Dictionaries Online with their quarterly update, making space for some trendy neologisms, including lolz, ridic, and the nefarious mwahahaha.  Continue reading...

On WBUR's Cognoscenti blog, Jan Freeman (formerly the language columnist for the Boston Globe) writes: "In the 15 years I've been writing about the English language, I've learned a lot, but one question remains as baffling as ever: Why do people love their language peeves so dearly?" To find out her answer, click here.

August is Connected Educators Month, and to celebrate, the New York Times Learning Network has rounded up 33 educators to explain who is in their "Personal Learning Network" (PLN). Among those responding are Visual Thesaurus executive producer Ben Zimmer and curriculum development director Georgia Scurletis. Check out all the responses here.

An article in The New Yorker about forensic linguistics tells the story of how the phrase "devil's strip" in a ransom note pinpointed the writer to Akron, Ohio. The forensic linguist, Roger Shuy, figured that out with the help of The Dictionary of American Regional English. Harvard University Press Blog provides the details here.

A couple of students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design came up with a clever project: helping foreigners learn how to pronounce local street names by hooking up street signs with some electronics that play audio recordings of the tricky Danish words. But why should expats in Denmark have all the fun? Could the same be done in the English-speaking world?  Continue reading...