Look for Vocabulary.com lexicographer Ben Zimmer in a School Library Journal/webcast-panel discussion tomorrow, June 18th, at 2 pm on how social media is impacting our view of dictionaries and the development of the English language.Continue reading...
Here at Vocabulary.com we're in the process of building a library of ready-made lists based on literature commonly taught in English and ELA classrooms. Please use them! And check out these tips for getting more out of them when you do.Continue reading...
In my latest column for the Boston Globe, I look at the recent craze for "cronuts," which are a croissant-doughnut hybrid created by an upscale French bakery in Manhattan. It was such a hit that imitators have created their own hybrids using names like dossant or doissant. Regardless of these concoctions' culinary qualities, is cronut a more appealing name than other combinations of croissant and do(ugh)nut?Continue reading...
As an adjective, xanthine suggests yellow. But Proulx may be invoking to the word's noun-form connection to blood and urine as well.Continue reading...