Read an excerpt from "The Hidden History of Coined Words"

Posted on 04/18/2021 at 04:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

William Shakespeare receives a lot of credit for his contributions not just to English literature, but to the language itself....

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Excerpt, Language, Literary Hub, Nonfiction

Learn some unique characteristics of Irish English

Posted on 03/17/2021 at 11:45 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Book nerds are also often word nerds, so we’ll take a quick St. Patrick’s Day detour to the world of...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Grammar Girl, Language

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is back -- with some changes

Posted on 02/23/2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is coming back this year! Organizers announced Monday that a modified version of the nearly...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: coronavirus / COVID-19, Just for fun, Language

A history of the word "bookworm" -- and the insects that inspired it

Posted on 02/23/2021 at 08:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

We’re so accustomed to calling ourselves bookworms that we never put much thought into the etymology of the word. Thankfully,...

Tagged As: BookRiot, Language

The words that were coined in 1921

Posted on 02/10/2021 at 08:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Tired of looking back in time? What if we do a dramatic rewind, all the way back to 1921, and...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

Merriam-Webster adds more COVID words (and many others) to dictionary

Posted on 01/28/2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Merriam-Webster has added 520 words to its online dictionary. Unsurprisingly, that includes more coronavirus-related words, such as “long hauler,” in...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: coronavirus / COVID-19, Language

Check out the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Posted on 01/26/2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

A new dictionary launched online today: Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction. The New York Times reports that the project has...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Language, Science fiction, The New York Times

All of the word-of-the-year coverage you could want

Posted on 01/22/2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

We’re squeaking in one last word-of-the-year post while it’s still technically the first month of the new year. The Columbia...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: Just for fun, Language

The Guardian's most influential words of 2020

Posted on 12/05/2020 at 04:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

The Guardian's David Shariatmadari has taken the Oxford English Dictionary approach to choosing a word of the year. Rather than...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: coronavirus / COVID-19, Language, The Guardian

Dictionary.com also chooses "pandemic" as its word of the year

Posted on 12/01/2020 at 02:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

It’s perhaps fitting that in a year where many days feel the same, Dictionary.com chose the same word of the...

Categories: Today in Books

Tagged As: coronavirus / COVID-19, Language