by Dictionary Scoop Whenever we think about vocabulary related to the animal kingdom, our mind usually goes to long, Latin scientific terms that seem extremely daunting to anyone not well-versed in biology. However, we sometimes fail to see how much our animal friends have also influenced the everyday words we regular joes use. We have …
Category Archives: dictionary
Appreciate These Rare, Underused Words
by Kevin Burton In a rare misstep, the folks at Dictionary Scoop said we should try to impress people with the vocabulary words listed below. The kind of people who would be impressed by something like that are not, let’s say, among my closest companions. But let’s appreciate the words and use …
“Imponderably” And Other English Isograms
by Dictionary Scoop Words that do not repeat a single letter are called isograms. The longer they are, the less we use them but the more fascinating they are. Long, unusual isograms go against language economy. However, from time to time, using words like “adjunctively” or “beclamouring” is the only way to express our …
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Hope For The Castaway Through Jesus Christ
by Kevin Burton To get a picture of what Christ has done for us, it helps to define the word “wilderness.” Merriam-Webster says wilderness is “a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings.” That kind of wilderness may be wild, but it still has its potential. It just hasn’t been tended …
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Other Terms For “Underwear” In Plain Sight
by Kevin Burton Now don’t go getting your panties in a bunch, but today we’re going to mention the unmentionable. The dictionary made me do it! This is Merriam-Webster ‘s list of ten better ways to say “underwear.” Getting one’s “knickers in a twist” is the way they say that phrase in …
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Crash Bang Hiss! Here’s To Onomatopoeias
by Dictionary Scoop A language as elastic and adaptive as English allows for words that describe anything you can think of. And onomatopoeias stand out as vibrant threads that weave together the sound and vision of our daily communication. These words echo the sounds they represent, adding a symphony of sensory richness to …
More Words (And A Suffix) From Yiddish
by Kevin Burton Along with more words English has gotten from Yiddish, today we include one suffix. A suffix is a letter of group of letters added to the end of a word. It can change the word’s grammatical function or meaning. The best example of a suffix from my formative years …
English Words That Came From Yiddish
by Kevin Burton You could go to college and learn about words and word formation, or you could go to the nearest schoolyard. How do we get the words we get? The cool kids, the most influential ones, talk a certain way. Soon the school follows. Believe me, in school had turns …
Scrabble Words And “Y” As A Proud Vowel
by Kevin Burton Merriam-Webster promised me a list of Scrabble words without vowels, but delivered a bunch of words (with one exception) with the letter Y in them. Y is a vowel, a card-carrying vowel. The fact that it has a part-time job as a consonant does not change that. The venerable dictionary …
More English Words From Japanese
by Kevin Burton Some of my totally blind friends used to fold dollar bills in certain ways so they would know what denomination they were. That was before the days of bill reader devices, so I’m not sure anybody does that folding any more. Anyway I used to call that folding that people …
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