As Leo Tolstoy wrote in the classic Anna Karenina, “spring is the time of plans and projects.” To put it more bluntly, spring is a time of new growth, new experiences, and, in most of the world, temperamental weather. To encourage your personal growth during this season of change, why not try out some of these sophisticated vocabulary terms related to spring? verdurous Verdurous is …
Four times a year, the season officially changes. And each change is marked by a specific point known as an equinox or a solstice. One term is used for the transition from winter to spring and summer to fall, and one is used for the switch from spring to summer and fall to winter. Join us on a journey through the seasons as we break …
There are a lot of reasons to love trees. They provide us with shade, fruit, beautiful flowers, and clean air. In addition to all of these perks, many of them also have fascinating names. Trees take their names from famous people in history, stories in mythology, and even the special extracts and resins they produce. Some of them are hundreds of feet tall. Others have …
As the weather warms and the flowers start to bloom, you may have noticed an increase in the different types of birdsong you hear each day. Birds’ songs and calls serve many purposes, from warning flocks of predators to helping birds catch the attention of potential mates. In the cases of the birds on this list, their songs and calls also inspired their names. The …
Cyclone, hurricane, and typhoon are all terms for big storms. Are they all the same thing? What’s the difference? Join us on this whirlwind tour as we answer these questions and more: What’s the difference between a cyclone, a hurricane, and a typhoon? What’s the difference between a tropical cyclone, a tropical depression, and a tropical storm? Why are some tropical cyclones called hurricanes and …
Summer is the season for basking in the warm sun and rejoicing in the freedom of vacation. Summer officially starts in late June—but try telling that to the students who’ve been enjoying their school break for weeks by that point! So let’s take a look at the name summer and what it actually means, while answering that age-old question: when exactly does summer begin and …
What do hunting and sexual desires have in common? We could point to several things, but from a linguistic point of view, we’re referring to the archaic word venery, which means both hunting (from the Latin venor) and sexual desire (from Latin veneria, referring to Venus). Strangely, terms of venery is a collective noun that means a group of animals. And, many of these animal …
The berry family is a linguistic invention particular to Germanic languages, like English. Other languages, like Spanish and French, do not combine the wide, diverse berry family into one group, but rather have very different words for blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Where does the word berry come from? The word berry comes from the Old English berie, which originally meant “grape.” As the English language spread …