Old-school news, just in time
by Dictionary Scoop The U.S. is a collection of regional accents, derived from waves of immigration, geography, and history. Let’s take a look at how some of the most recognizable American accents came to be. 1-California California accents may seem subtle, but they’re deeply rooted in the state’s layered history. Spanish was the dominant …
Continue reading “You Talk Funny, Sonny: 12 American Accents”
by Dictionary Scoop Our language loves to borrow from the dinner table. Many everyday words that sound delicious once referred only to food but have since taken on entirely new meanings. Take a look at 12 of these idioms and see for yourself! 1-Butterfingers A term once used for describing the act …
by Kevin Burton The cautionary note from Dictionary Scoop regarding today’s content is “Warning: once you learn these strange words, you’ll start using them!” Well I don’t think so, other than one I already use and another I might use, sparingly. Thinking of words as tools, I would decline to jam most of …
by Mike MacEacheran BBC In the UK, sorry is not simply an apology, it’s a cultural reflex – a five-letter pressure valve used to soften requests, smooth over awkwardness, fill conversational gaps and avoid the national horror of seeming rude. It is perhaps no coincidence that such famously polite characters as Paddington and …
Continue reading “What The British Mean When They Say ‘Sorry’”
by Dictionary Scoop Romance languages, led by French, have had such a lasting influence on English that we sometimes forget that it is actually a Germanic language, and as such, a relative of the Nordic languages. However, Nordic languages had left their mark on English centuries before the French-Normans even attempted to conquer England, and they …
Continue reading “Ten Words That Came From Nordic To English”
by Kevin Burton I bury my mother today. Can you imagine such a thing? Life is a coin flip, with love on one side and pain on the other. Pain, in some measure, is the residue of love. Live. Love. Toss the coin. Do it. “There’s a sad day coming, and …
by Kevin Burton Are these phrases magnetic? Do they constitute heavy verbal metal? You be the judge. But Merriam-Webster dictionary has identified seven common idioms that include one metal or another. Do you see yourself in any of these metallic descriptions? 1-Lead foot Despite its reputation, lead is not the heaviest of …
Continue reading “Seven Metallic Idioms From Merriam-Webster”
by Merriam-Webster Dictionary Caboodle: all of a group of things So, you’ve gone and got yourself a kit. Very nice, very nice. Looks like a sewing kit, or maybe a first aid kit. Okay, now we see it’s a model airplane kit. Congratulations. But do you have the caboodle that, we presume from the phrase …
by Dictionary Scoop Need a few tricks up your sleeve for playing Scrabble? It’s not always the long words that will impress the other players: Sometimes it’s the surprisingly short combination of letters that none of them knew. Let’s explore some of the most obscure –yet perfectly valid– three-letter words. 1-Cwm Before …
Continue reading “Three-Letter Words For You Scrabble Nerds”
by dictionary Scoop Geography, like all academic disciplines, has its own vocabulary and terminology. Concerned with everything from physical phenomena of the planet to social interactions, geographers have many specialized terms and concepts. You’ve probably used some of the words in this list. Yet, do you know exactly what they mean or where …
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