Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2014
Blog Excerpts
Weird Al's "Word Crimes" Takes on Language Peeves
Most entertaining grammar video since School House Rock
Weird Al Yankovic's "Word Crimes" video transforms Robin Thicke's scandalous "Blurred Lines" into a prescriptivist grammarian's screed. We think it's brilliant and are happy to see it getting much play in the language-loving community this week.
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Blog Excerpts
The Return of Lexicon Valley
Lexicon Valley, Slate's podcast for language lovers, has just returned after an extended hiatus. First up is an interview with Columbia University professor John McWhorter about his new book The Language Hoax. Listen to the podcast here, and also check out Mark Peters' review of McWhorter's book here. And stay tuned for news about our own Ben Zimmer joining forces with the Lexicon Valley podcasters!
Dept. of Word Lists
Honoring Nadine Gordimer's Wisdom and Work
Vocabulary from her written and spoken words
Two Vocabulary Lists honor the life and work of South African novelist and activist and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadine Gordimer, who died Sunday at the age of 90.
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Long before the advent of air conditioning, ice cream, sherbet, and their frozen cousins provided edible relief for summer heat — if you were rich enough to afford them. Today, these icy treats are democratic and diverse, and their names, both generic and trademarked, tell rich stories about language and history. Here are some of the tastiest.
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
What is the Opposite of an "Upset"?
Or, how would Biblical sports writers have described a Goliath win?
If Argentina had prevailed against Germany in yesterday's World Cup final, you couldn't really have called it an upset. Germany had dominated during the past weeks of World Cup play, but Argentina had gone in as a strong contender. It was a hard fought game decided by a single goal scored in extra time. Neither an upset nor its opposite. Which brings up an interesting vocabulary question: What would a word for the opposite of an upset be? Do we have one in English?
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Topics:
Word Origins
Blog Excerpts
A Tween Blames "Selfie" for a Shrinking Vocabulary
But she can keep "selfie" and add "ecstatic" too
Last week, a thirteen-year old wrote about shrinking vocabulary for her mother's blog on Palo Alto online, in which she wondered if the existence of new words is to blame for a decrease in the average person's vocabulary. Are words like selfie crowding more worthy vocabulary from our brains?
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Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty, has been sharing short tips on usage and style with us. Her latest tip looks at the evolution of affirmative interjections, from yea and yes in Old English to yeah and yup in contemporary English.
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