One of the commercials run during the Super Bowl this year was one from Audi featuring an imagined "Doberhuahua," a cross between a Doberman and a Chihuahua. But as VT contributor Mark Peters explained on OUPblog, real-life canine hybrids often have blended names that are just as fanciful, whether it's "wienerhuahua" or "peekapoo." Read Mark's blog post here.
The great folk-music pioneer Pete Seeger died on Monday at the age of 94. He's best known for such classics as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Turn, Turn, Turn!" But we're particularly fond of a song that he performed about the irrationality of the English language, "English is Cuh-Ray-Zee."Continue reading...
With the Super Bowl just around the corner, our own Ben Zimmer talked to Seattle's KUOW about the origins of some football language. Some of the terms, like "the 12th man" and "the Legion of Boom," have special resonance in Seattle, home of the Super Bowl-bound Seahawks.Continue reading...
Language writer Jen Doll takes on the phenomenon of linguistic "peeving" for the Atlantic and collects a list of "classics." See any you recognize?Continue reading...
It's a popularly held idea that dictionary writers have the power to add words to the lexicon when in fact language is changed the by people who use it and the job of the lexigrographer is to take note. Here, Vocabulary.com lexicographer Ben Zimmer revisits this distinction in a look at a recent episode of the Nickelodeon teen comedy "Sam & Cat," in which the titular characters take on word-creation head on.Continue reading...
For a word so many of us shrug off as "meaningless," resolution is actually chock-full of meaning. In fact, it's so rich, it makes a great place to start for anyone resolving to learn more words in 2014.Continue reading...
A word can spark a conversation, remind us of a shared happiness, console a grieving heart, entice us with thoughts of future pleasure. Why not offer one to friends and family as a gift? We've got a list of gift-worthy ones to inspire you and our word-store, otherwise known as our Dictionary, is open 24 hours a day.Continue reading...