COVID-19 has greatly increased awareness and knowledge of specialized scientific vocabulary among the general public. Some of us may remember high school lessons on concepts like DNA and RNA, and the exact role they play in the development of new vaccines. For the rest of us, however, a quick refresher is in order. Central to the discussion of the pandemic is the topic of vaccination. …
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong famously sang about the controversial pronunciations of words like tomato (to-mah-to?), potato (po-tah-to?), either, neither, pajamas, and others in the song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” They settled nothing, and people have been debating the right way to say these words ever since. And those aren’t the only words that send people to opposing corners, either. There are a host …
Are those reins on a horse or reigns? Is it rein in or reign in? Free rein or free reign? Confusion is understandable: reign and rein are pronounced exactly the same and are almost spelled the same—except for the silent G in reign (which is a big clue, actually). And both involve control. We’ll make it easy to tell apart rein and reign and remember …
If you live in the United States, there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with Cinco de Mayo. You may even know that it means the “fifth of May,” and that it’s a holiday celebrating an important event in Mexican history. There’s also a good chance that you’re familiar with how Mexico is often tokenized on this day with, well, lots of beer and sombrero …
During the holiday season, we hear Merry Christmas countless times. How did we settle on this Christmas greeting? It’s not clear, but in the United States, the word merry is almost exclusively used in the Christmas season. Merry in this phrase means “festive or characterized by rejoicing.” One of the earliest known uses of Merry Christmas is in a December 22, 1534, record of a …
So you have an important test coming up. Standardized tests like the SAT, ACT, GRE, and GED are a major part of the high school, college, and even graduate school experience, but prepping for these tests isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite activity. Each of these tests serves a different function in the high school and college admissions process, but no matter which one you’re signed up …
One recipe says to roast the chicken breasts in the oven at 400° F. Another recipe calls for the chicken breasts to be baked … in the oven… at 400°. What’s going on here? Are roast and bake really interchangeable, or are there subtle differences? The answer is both. In this article, we’ll break down the multiple meanings of both roast and bake, what the …
If you haven’t visited a classroom in years, you might be surprised to discover surprising new approaches to education. Do you know what microlearning is? Does you child’s school favor personalized or experiential learning? Is asynchronous learning the same as distance education? Learning has come a long way since the days of reciting times tables in the brick school house or getting chalky hands while …
When Americans think of Canadian English, certain stereotypical Canadianisms found in pop culture might come to mind, such as the ubiquitous “eh” or the distinctly Canadian way of saying “about.” But there is so much more than that! Just like their counterparts in the United States, the people of the Great White North have a bunch of cool slang words for a whole range of …
Every spring, the skies explode in bursts of color as people around the world celebrate the Hindu holiday Holi. Friends, family, and strangers alike gather together to joyfully toss brightly colored powders, water, and water balloons, and it doesn’t take long for revelers to be covered in color from head to toe, and the streets to become a wild haze of blue, yellow, red, and green. It’s quite …
March 15 is known as the ides of March. But why do we need to “beware” of them? What’s so inauspicious about this otherwise normal day? Why has this humdrum mid-month point become a harbinger of ill fortune? Where did the phrase ides of March come from? First, let’s talk calendars—specifically, the ancient Roman calendar. Unlike today, the ancient Romans didn’t simply number their calendar days in …
English is a more varied (and delicious) melting pot than you think … English is one of the most incredible, flavorfully complex melting pots of linguistic ingredients from other countries that’s been left to simmer for (in some cases) centuries. These linguistic ingredients are called loanwords that have been borrowed and incorporated into English. The loanwords are oftentimes so common now, the foreign flavor has …
