August 7, 2015 2 Comments
An intriguing image from the Mars Curiosity rover, developments surrounding Cecil the Lion, and the first GOP presidential debate caused terms to spike in lookups this week. extradition: the procedure by which one nation turns over to another nation an individual charged with or convicted of a crime in that jurisdiction. The killing of Cecil [...]
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JulIn: Current Events, History, Language 126
Do you know all the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Many people have difficulty memorizing the lyrics of the first verse of this song, which is commonly performed at sports events and other public gatherings. But did you know that there are three additional verses that we almost never hear? In 1814, the poet and [...]
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JunMany words have been wasted on the subject of when adulthood starts. Some hold that it comes about with the right to drink alcoholic beverages or vote in an election. For particularly stringent grammarians of a certain generation, the rite of passage that marks the official start of adulthood is the point at which one [...]
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AprIn: Current Events, History 10
The release of the Apple Watch has given the noun wearable some additional prominence. This leads to the question of which term came first: wearable or personal computer? As with so many such questions, there is no simple answer. Wearable has been used as a noun since the end of the 17th century (in a [...]
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