Writing about an opt-out of testing movement brewing in her children's elementary school (and elsewhere), New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead used the highly-specific invigilate which, despite the fact that it describes a practice taking place in schools around the world every minute of every day, is a word most people don't know.Continue reading...
Photographer Dianne Yudelson used the word aviary in calling a recent series featured in The New Yorker an "Antique Aviary." Take one look at the series, and you'll remember the definition of "aviary" for life.Continue reading...
Victorian novelist Wilkie Collins, widely regarded as the father of the modern detective story, celebrates his 188th birthday this week. To honor him, we take a look at the opening pages of his still-fun The Moonstone, where he uses the unusual rapine.Continue reading...
In a piece about the de-funkifying of Greenwich Village, New York Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren transforms the noun wine bar into a verb.Continue reading...
In "Loving Las Vegas" for Harper's Magazine, Colson Whitehead uses hurly burly when he writes about a summer stint splitting a Let's Go student travel guide assignment among three friends.Continue reading...
In a pithy piece for The Gothamist, writer Nell Casey uses the terrifically scientific (sounding) tryptophan when she tells readers to "Stop blaming the turkey for your Thanksgiving food coma."Continue reading...