|
|
While most of us view April 15th as the day the tax man cometh (and our income goeth), it marked a more auspicious occasion in 1755. That was the day Samuel Johnson published his massive two-volume, 42,773-word dictionary of the English language. Mim Harrison, founding editor of Levenger Press, takes a look back.
Continue reading...
Click here to read more articles from Behind the Dictionary.
Last month in Contest Corner, the goal was to find as many words as possible that are defined using all four parts of speech on the Visual Thesaurus (i.e., noun, adjective, verb, and adverb). Congratulations to Eric D. of Grand Rapids, MI, who came up with 26! Here's his list: back, better, clean, clear, direct, down, even, fast, free, full, home, last, long, low, out, quiet, right, round, short, slow, square, still, thin, true, well, wrong. Eric wins a Visual Thesaurus T-shirt!
Click here to read more articles from Contest Corner.
The recent hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship off the coast of Somalia serves as a chilling reminder that seagoing pirates continue to threaten international waters, from the Gulf of Aden to the Straits of Malacca. For many of us, it's peculiar to see the word pirate making headlines, since it seems so out of place in the 21st century — at least outside of Disney theme parks.
Continue reading...
Click here to read more articles from Word Routes.
Yesterday I had the privilege of appearing on the WNYC radio show Soundcheck to talk about the origins of booing. The news hook was a recent Metropolitan Opera production of La Sonnambula that got booed by the audience thanks to its avant-garde staging. Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout discussed the booing incident, and I was there to provide some historical and linguistic context.
Continue reading...
Click here to read more articles from Word Routes.
While many teachers may have their students keep vocabulary logs of the unfamiliar words they encounter in books they are reading or from the world at large, few require students to take the extra steps to ensure a deeper or more meaningful understanding of these words.
Continue reading...
Click here to read more articles from Wordshop.
As a resident of Chicago and citizen of the great state of Illinois, I feel as though I am in the center of the political cosmos, whence all good and bad things emanate.
Where else has given you, in such a short time, the first black President and the first disgraced former governor with a giant rodent living on his head? You're welcome.
Continue reading...
Click here to read more articles from Evasive Maneuvers.
|
Other Topics:
|
