Old-school news, just in time
by Kevin Burton In my early studies in journalism I heard or read somewhere that a news reporter should write at a 10th-grade level. I never did that. I wouldn’t. I was very aware that I was talking to everyone, “broadcasting,” in the print news sense of the word, with the emphasis on …
Continue reading “Use A Variety Of Verbal Tools To Communicate”
by Dictionary Scoop Health is an important issue for everyone, and our language is proof of that! English offers us many health-related idioms with very interesting origins. To discover the meaning and roots of ten of them, read on! 1-An apple a day keeps the doctor away . You were probably just a child the first time …
by Kevin Burton I know I shouldn’t be doing this. But here’s my excuse up front: The dictionary made me do it! There is more than enough bad blood, ill manners, insincerity and name calling to go around these days. Nevertheless, Merriam-Webster dictionary provides you today with entirely new and creative ways to …
Continue reading “Bolster Your Vocabulary With Creative Insults!”
by Dictionary Scoop We toss around old sayings without thinking twice. But have you ever wondered where these phrases actually came from? You might be surprised (and a little unsettled) to find out that many of them have pretty grim backstories. Even if we’re keeping things light and curious, you’ll never look at …
by Dictionary Scoop Money makes the world go round, and in the U.S., there are more ways to talk about it than you might expect. Americans have come up with a colorful range of slang and idioms to refer to cash. We look into 11 of them today. 1-Cash The first entry on …
Continue reading “Million-Dollar Slang: In Other Words, Money”
by Dictionary Scoop Some words seem interchangeable at first glance, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll notice they have completely different meanings. So in the interest of clarity in communication, let’s clear up some of the most commonly confused word pairs. 1-Anticipate vs. Expect Both words involve thinking about the future, …
Continue reading “Avoid Confusion With These Tricky Word Pairs”
by Dictionary Scoop Since most board games and card games are composed of rules and repeated actions, it is only natural that certain phrases are repeated throughout the gameplay. The metaphorical potential of some of these phrases has led to them becoming part of our everyday language. Surely you use some of these: 1-Close, …
by Kevin Burton I believe it was the great Marty Brennaman, on the Cincinnati Reds radio network, who used to call the first game of a three-game series the “lid-lifter.” Let’s tack that one on, at the very beginning mind you, like the first pitch in the top of the first inning, to …
Continue reading “OK Then, Let’s Get This Word Party Started!”
by Dictionary Scoop. If “nonverbal” is the opposite of “verbal,” shouldn’t “nonchalant” be the opposite of “chalant”? As it turns out, it’s not so simple. “Unpaired words” are terms we assume should exist, based on standard linguistic rules, but don’t. To test your knowledge and learn more about unpaired words, guess which of …
Continue reading “Turnabout Not Always Fair Play With Words”
by Dictionary Scoop You learn your colors before kindergarten, but how did they get their names? And what did we call “orange” first, was it the color or the fruit? Let’s explore the multi-hued history of how color names came to be! 1-Blue “Blue” comes from the Old French word bleu, which in …
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