Wordplay

Word History (page 5)

Did Warren Harding Coin 'Normalcy'?

Umm...define 'normalcy'

Why Do We Handle Something 'With Kid Gloves?'

No children were harmed

This Word is Rigged

The hidden origins of 'rigged'

What does 'nice' mean, anyway?

Polysemy in action

'Luxury' Originally Meant 'Lust'

"They lived in luxury"

What's the 'Desert' in 'Desert Island'?

It's not a desert—it's deserted

The Non-Apology 'Apology'

Non-apologies are nothing new

'Tabby': The Cat's Out of the Bag

And the bag is made of silk

The History of 'Glamour'

Its original allure was decidedly bookish

The Surprising History of 'Genial'

You'll look at it differently after this

No, Jane Austen Did Not Invent Baseball

The word dates back at least as far as the 1740s

The History of 'Pants'

"Vulgar exceedingly"

Where Does the Phrase 'Spruce Up' Come From?

It's not what you might assume

What is a Malaprop?

We'll tell you all the perpendiculars

The Secret History of 'Staycation'

New research reveals that the word is older than we thought

The Whimsical Delight of the Clerihew

Poems for smiling

Why do we call it a 'dollar'?

The origin and history of the dollar

Everyone Loves a 'Parade'

You aren't prepared for this word's origin

Is Junk an Adjective or a Noun?

Plus the history of the word "junk"

Underwhelm

Yes, 'overwhelm' came first

The Original Meaning of 'Prestigious'

It's tricky

6 Truly Terrible Definitions

It's not as easy as it looks, okay?

How We Write Our Definitions

Lexical defining vs. real defining

The First Parasite

The first one may have received an invitation

How Long Did it Take to Write the Dictionary?

An astonishing achievement

Spoof

It's all fun and games until somebody gets spoofed

Where does the term 'spinster' come from?

Spoiler: patriarchy

The Gruesome History of 'Shambles'

The word has a bloody past

Dictionaries at War: Armed Services Editions

"A few square inches of home"

Why Do We Use the Phrase 'Hard Core'?

From one kind of rock to another

Where Does 'Taps' Come From?

Why we play 'taps' at military funerals

Are 'Factoids' the Same as 'Facts'?

An invented word for invented facts

Notes on 'Scandal'

The word has a shocking history

The History of 'Boggle' Will Boggle Your Mind

It shares an origin with 'bogeyman'

The History of the Word 'Xenophobia'

The word's not as old as you think

The History of 'High Jinks'

What's the meaning of all this?

What do we mean by 'the distaff side'?

From flax to the family tree

Playing the --- Card

The origins of a popular phrase

Where Does the Word 'Delegate' Come From?

Represent

The Politics of Red Meat

The juicy truth about 'red meat'

'Air Rage' and 6 Other Terms From Aviation

Come fly with us

Where Does the Name 'Cappuccino' Come From?

You'll never look at your coffee the same way again

Why Do We Say 'Put up Your Dukes'?

Eighty-six? Raspberry?

Unpacking the Word 'Unpack'

It was good enough for Hamlet

The History of Fun

Can you imagine life before fun?

What Kind of Word is 'Galore'?

Theories galore

The True Story of the Backward Index

These people needed a computer

How 'Brainstorm' Got Better

The crazy history of 'brainstorming'

What's a snollygoster?

Even lexicographers are wrong sometimes

What Does 'Canvass' Mean?

Yes, it's related to 'canvas'

Could Downton Abbey Characters Go 'Over to the Dark Side'?

We're cautiously optimistic

When Did 'Politician' Become a Dirty Word?

Even politicians don't like it

Bissextile

An old name for 'leap day'

Why Do We Call It 'Swag'?

'Loot' or 'stylish confidence'?

Antonin Scalia v. Merriam-Webster

The time Scalia took on the dictionary

'Caucus': A Curious American Word

Caulkers? Caucauasu? C.A.U.C.U.S.?

That's Dope: 5 Drug Words Gone Mainstream

Like a chocoholic, but for booze

Saturday Special

What makes Saturday different from the other days of the week?

We're Going Rogue

A phrase once reserved for elephant behavior, is now often used to describe a kind of political animal

Roget's Thesaurus

The landmark book reveals the work of a remarkable intelligence

The Long History of the Phrase 'Civil Rights'

Used in English for more than 400 years

Almoner

Cousin Isobel on Downton Abbey has a new title

New Year's Resolutions: A Pretty Old Practice

New year, new you?

Star Words

Star Wars words in the dictionary

How the Turkey Got Its Name

The strange global travels of America's favorite Thanksgiving meal

Words Unfit for Office

The ‘flubs' that got presidents (and candidates) in trouble with the critics

A Doozy of a Story

The Origin of Doozy Isn't What You Think

Surprising Words from the 1920s

Robots, "Atom Bombs," and "Rocket Ships" Were All Born in the Jazz Age

Figment: You Can't Make This Up!

Or Can You?

The Mystery of the Backward Index

Why would anyone type out 315,000 words spelled in reverse?

Slang Goes Legit

What we can learn from the 'language weeds' of 100 years ago

Gruntle, Burgle, and Commentates

The entertaining history and usage of back-formations

Egregious: Meaning and History

From Remarkably Good to Shockingly Bad

What Does "Jiggery-Pokery" Mean?

Antonin Scalia's Unapologetic Use of Rhyming Reduplication

How 'Doughnut' Became 'Donut'

What's your favorite?

Still Often Used After All These Years

Definition and Synonyms of "Albeit"

Is Being Called Tenacious a Good Thing?

The Definition of "Tenacious"

How 'Thru' Turned Into 'Through'

And Then to 'Thru' Again

Drones Are Everywhere Now

But How Did They Get Their Name?

Where Did the Definition of 'Tact' Come From?

The meaning is easy – the practice is harder

The Shared History of Dissimilar Words

Incumbent, Succumb, and Recumbent

The Curious History of 'Filibuster'

The Curious History of "Filibuster"

How We Got Different Words From Common Roots

Doublets: English's Nonidentical Twins

How a Word For "Blood" Came to Mean "Optimistic"

The Odd History of "Sanguine"

Why do we quit 'cold turkey'?

Explaining A Common Phrase That Makes No Sense

Spam. A Lot of Spam.

How Spam Became Something On Your Phone, Not On Your Plate

It's Not You, It's Me

The Oldest Line In the Book Isn't Really That Old

The Shady Past of "Shoo-Ins"

How We Got from Cheating to Awards Season

Turns Out You Can Unboil An Egg

The history of the word 'unboil'

Older Than They Look: 'Hipster,' 'Ghosting,' and More

They may sound new, but words like 'hipster', 'rap', and 'ginormous' have a surprisingly long history.

Webster's Dictionary of 1864

The landmark edition that transformed the way dictionaries are made.

The History of 'Cynic'

How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.

Teflon, "Gunk," & More: Products That Became Words

Top 10 Words from Trademarks, Vol. 2

10 Words That Come from 'Mother'

'Metropolis', 'matrix', and more

How 'Punk Rock' Got Its Name

Top 10 Words of the '70s

Who Gave 'Ritzy' All That Style?

Top 10 Words from People's Names

Top 10 Words of the '90s

The decade of dot-com and d'oh

Top 10 Words Born in Conflict

When did the 'Riot Act' first get read?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Words for uncommon fears
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