You don’t need us to tell you that spelling words correctly is not always easy. For evidence, you only need to look at the word mispelled … and then look again because we just misspelled it! But even when you get everything just right, sometimes things just feel off. There are certain words out there that—even when all of the I’s are dotted and T’s …
It’s in human nature to tell stories and in many ways, our stories—our mythologies—work their way into every aspect of our daily lives, from meme culture to the language we speak. You may be familiar with some of the words derived from the names of Greek and Roman gods and characters (herculean, echo, narcissist, to name a few). But some of the words with similar …
For many English-speaking folks, the odds of encountering the French names for the days of the week are pretty low. Sure, you might encounter the French Mardi (Tuesday) every year during Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday” in English), but other examples are few and far between. So, if you feel like your vocabulary is missing that certain je ne sais quoi, then maybe a tiny little …
As any participant in a spelling bee can tell you, correctly spelling words in the English language is not always easy. In most languages, the way words are spelled (graphemes) consistently relate to the way they sound (phonemes). But the English language uses a mix of spellings and pronunciations from Latin, Greek, French, German, and many others. To further confuse matters, words in English have …
Where did the name Wednesday come from? Surprise, surprise … Wednesday Addams wasn’t the originator of the name. In fact, the name Wednesday actually derives from two mighty but distinct gods. The Old English word for Wednesday indicates that the day was named for the Germanic god Woden. In Romance languages, the name is derived from the Roman god Mercury. (For example, Wednesday is mercredi in French and miercuri …