by Rachel Bradley Ah, childhood, those halcyon days when you chewed on a stuffed Mr. Snuffleupagus and cruised the driveway in your foot-pedaled convertible. Childhood was also the time when, hopefully, you learned how to peepee—with your wee wee, weenie, peenie, winkey, giney, or jay-jay. Ring any bells? Those goofy names remind us that childhood is also when our private parts are often given cutesy …
A euphemism is a gentle word or expression for a harsh or offensive term.
Recently, we looked up the etymology of the word occupy. We found an unexpected obsolete definition. The term occupy formerly meant something very different than its current common meaning. From the early 1500s to the 1800s, occupy was used to refer to sexual relations, as in “to occupy a woman” as defined in the Lexicon Balatronicum in 1811. When occupy was used in that sense, …
Every May in the United States, Americans observe Older Americans Month, a month-long observance devoted to celebrating older Americans and their contributions and raising awareness about issues related to age and aging. This makes May an important time during which to consider language used to talk about older people and ageism—which we should be doing every month of the year, too! This topic matters because …
We make it no secret here that we think words are really cool. In English, we can do a lot of cool things with words like make metaphors, rhymes, or craft groan-worthy puns that even the most tolerant of dads will roll their eyes at. To help express our love of vocabulary, we found a bunch of fun terms that describe a lot of different …
Gosh, golly, and gee casually express surprise or excitement, right? Well, yes, but when they were first introduced to the English language, these short words had a much more serious origin and purpose. Where did golly, gosh, and gee come from? While this folksy trio are informal interjections, they are also euphemistic alterations of the word God or, in the case of gee, Jesus. Of the three, gosh is recorded …
Ableist language doesn’t only consist of slurs. It comes in many forms, including some so familiar that you may have never stopped to think about their origins or implications. The term ableist language has two definitions in this dictionary, accounting for the different things it can refer to: words and phrases that devalue disabled people by using disability language or historical descriptions of disabilities as …
It’s one of the most versatile words in the English language, but where did the F-word really come from? Originally, the naughtiest of naughty words was actually quite an acceptable word, though no English speaker would say that today.F-ck is believed to have first showed up in written form some time in the 1400s, and it was disguised in a cypher, although it was in use …
The popular American sitcom, Modern Family once featured a swearing toddler in an episode. It was not a “fleeting expletive.” The show intentionally included a cursing two-year and bleeped out all swear words. When the show premiered, the New York Times wrote about how accurately it reflected contemporary American families, and that the storylines seemed to be an accurate portrait of what many parents go through. …
Take a minute to think back to the beginning of the pandemic. Do you remember the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 that signaled the end of the Before Times? It has been one heck of a long year and a lot has changed since then, including our bathrooms. Fearing the unthinkable, a number of people installed bidets in their bathrooms to avoid a disaster. …
by Ashley Austrew What is a possible hate crime? A possible sexual assault? A possible terrorist attack? Crime-related news is often reported in the media using tentative language—like the word possible—that makes it seem as if there is room for doubt as to whether or not a crime was actually committed. But in many instances, either through video, photos, or the victim’s own words and evidence, it …
From a Twitter meltdown by Roseanne Barr to a word dropped on Westworld, Hollywood had a major impact on the Dictionary.com trending word list the week of May 25–June 1, 2018. Racist, abhorrent, and repugnant A series of tweets by Roseanne Barr hit the news cycle this week, and they also helped boost a number of searches on Dictionary.com. Barr, star of the eponymous show …