Tennessee Valley Authority

Huh? These three letters make one of the only universally understood words in the world. Slate explores this in a video. On Wednesday, Electric Literature hosted a Twitter contest for #LitWords, clever neologisms inspired by books, like Ohwellian meaning “resigned to dystopia.” Here are the winners. The widely maligned Valley Girl uptalk may have originated in the Scots-Irish intonation patterns of Great Britain, not in …

Whether you regard yourself as a scholar of linguistics or a self proclaimed language snob—you’ve probably, at least once, crossed over to the dark side and used the word like in a sentence where it, like, doesn’t belong. Narrowly escaping the grammar police, you catch yourself, cringe, and promise never again! This usage of like is known as a slang interjection. This form as well …