Vocabulary
vocabularyOne Word, Many Voices: How 'Death' Changes Across Twenty-Five Centuries
Follow the word 'death' from Aesop and Boethius to Austen, Dickens and beyond: one plain word remade by twenty-five centuries of writers.
vocabularyDish and Desk: The Secret Twins Hiding in Everyday English
Costume and custom, loyal and legal, dish and desk — three pairs of everyday words that each split from its own Latin ancestor.
vocabularyOccur, Current, Course: The Hidden 'Run' in Cur- Words
Occur, current, course and cursor come from one Latin verb meaning 'to run.' Secure looks like one of them but comes from a different root — care.
vocabularyDisaster Literally Means 'Bad Star': The Astrology Hidden in Everyday English
Disaster once meant 'a bad star,' a lunatic is moonstruck, and influence flowed from the heavens: everyday English still carries the old astrology.
vocabularyGlamour Is Literally the Word 'Grammar': From a Spell to Dazzling Charm
Glamour and grammar are the same word. It began as a Scots term for magic, a spell that deceives the eye, long before it ever meant dazzling charm.
vocabularyOne Word, Many Voices: How 'Time' Changes Across Fourteen Centuries
Follow the word 'time' from Boethius in the sixth century to Jane Austen and beyond: one plain, everyday word remade by every age of English writing.
vocabularyContain, Retain, Detain: The Hidden 'Hold' in English's -tain Words
Contain, retain, detain and maintain come from one Latin verb meaning 'to hold.' Attain looks like one of them, but belongs to a different family.
vocabularyIs Pride and Prejudice Hard to Read? It's the Sentences, Not the Words
Pride and Prejudice isn't hard because of its words — you'll recognise about 97 in every 100. The difficulty is Austen's long sentences and her irony.
vocabularyOne Root, Ten Words: How Greek and Latin Roots Build English Vocabulary
Learn one Latin root like spect ('to look') and you can decode inspect, perspective, conspicuous, and a dozen more — how word roots grow your English.
vocabularySmog, Brunch, Chortle: A Field Guide to Portmanteau Words
Smog, brunch, motel, chortle: English is full of portmanteau words. Lewis Carroll named them, and the dictionary still records the seams.
vocabularyBuzz, Hiss, Clang: The Words That Sound Like What They Mean
Some English words are built from the sound they name — buzz, hiss, clang. A look at onomatopoeia and how the classics put it to work.
vocabularyCleave, Sanction, Dust: Words That Mean Their Own Opposite
Some English words are their own opposite — to cleave is to split or to cling, to sanction is to approve or to punish. A field guide to contronyms.