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Word Routes
2010 Spelling Bee: On to the Semifinals!
Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010
After the first day of competition at the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee, the field of 273 contestants has been winnowed down to 48, who will move on to Friday's semifinal round. They'll all be looking to follow in the path of last year's winner, Kavya Shivashankar. As usual, the preliminary rounds featured some fascinatingly obscure words, from famulus (a close attendant, as to a scholar) to nullipara (a woman who has never given birth to a child).
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Blog Excerpts
Noah Webster and the Bee
Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010
In the Wall Street Journal, John Murray uses the National Spelling Bee as a jumping off point for exploring the pivotal role that the lexicographer Noah Webster played in the development of American English, and how his faith informed his work. Check out Murray's column here.
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Announcements
Spelling Bee Whizzes Hone Their Skills with the Visual Thesaurus
Thu Jun 03 00:00:00 EDT 2010
The 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee kicks off today, with all eyes focused on the 273 young spellers gathered in Washington D.C. Thanks to national television exposure, the event is sure to spark renewed interest in the fascinating complexities of English spelling. The competitors have been studying hard, and the Visual Thesaurus has been proud to equip them with the ultimate training tool. The Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee, a challenging online game, has shaped up to be one of the best resources available for premier spellers, while also providing addictive fun for the rest of us!
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Calendar
National Spelling Bee
Thu Jun 03 00:00:00 EDT 2010 - Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2010
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Evasive Maneuvers
French Pastry and Other Limits-Exceeding Lunacy
Wed Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2010
The NBA playoffs have long been the highlight of my television year, and like so many other boob tube productions, they produce their share of euphemisms.
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Language Lounge
European Style
Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010
Would you still purchase a "3-piece European-style outdoor bistro set" if you had to pay a "European-style value-added-tax" on it? This month in the Lounge we look at the changing fortunes of all things European.
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Blog Excerpts
Word Routes in the Top 100
Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010
Word Routes, the regular column by Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer, was selected as one of the Top 100 Language Blogs of 2010, in a worldwide competition hosted by bab.la and Lexiophiles. Language blogs were nominated and then ranked according to user votes and other criteria. Check out the whole list here.
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Teachers at Work
Headlines That Sing: Teaching Students to Use Their Allusions
Mon May 31 00:00:00 EDT 2010
One of the qualities of New York Times writing is that it not only informs clearly (almost all the time), concisely (almost all the time), and gracefully (almost all the time) — but that it delights. On almost every page, well-turned phrases, alliterations, similes and word play amuse and delight readers. My favorite Times verbal delight, though, is the headline that contains an allusion to a song.
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Contest
The Visual Thesaurus Crossword Puzzle: May Edition
Fri May 28 00:00:00 EDT 2010
We're revving up for the Indianapolis 500 with a racing-themed crossword puzzle. Solve it and you could win a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
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Word Routes
When "Cool" Got Cool
Thu May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2010
It's hard to imagine the English language without the word cool as a colloquial description of someone or something first-rate. Over the past half-century of usage, the word has become so omnipresent that it has lost much of its slangy patina. Slang-watcher Connie Eble noted here that when she asks her students at the University of North Carolina to list items of slang, they don't even think of cool, since "it's just ordinary vocabulary for them." How did cool first break through to the mainstream?
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