Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from November, 2013
On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Americans kick off the holiday shopping season with a bang. We look back to a Word Routes column by lexicographer Ben Zimmer exploring the origins of the phrase "Black Friday." It is not, as many believe, the day when retailers' balance sheets change from red to black.
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Vocabulary Shout-Out
Is Tryptophan's Soporific Effect the Baloney We Serve With Our Turkey?
Sort of: it's for real, it's a word, but it's not what's making you sleepy
In a pithy piece for The Gothamist, writer Nell Casey uses the terrifically scientific (sounding) tryptophan when she tells readers to "Stop blaming the turkey for your Thanksgiving food coma."
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Announcements
New Champions' Banner for School Leaderboard Wins
Designed to take pride of place in any trophy display.
With school leaderboards more active than ever, we're instituting a new reward for play: a Champions banner for monthly school leaderboard winners, emblazoned with the winning school's name.
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Topics:
Vocabulary.com News
Dept. of Word Lists
Iranians Turned "Avuncular"? Ten Words You Need to Know in This Week's News
And for Thanksgiving: What's with asking for "copia" as in "cornucopia" and getting only "copia" as in "copious rain"?
To fully understand unfolding news stories on the Thanksgiving storm, the Iran accord, Healthcare.gov, and expanding AP course enrollment, learn ten key words taken from New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post coverage with Iranians Turned "Avuncular"? Ten Words in This Week's News.
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Dept. of Word Lists
By Teacher Request: Words from David Almond's "Skellig"
A angel arrives in time for the holiday season
Our List of the Week comes from teacher request for a list based on vocabulary from David Almond's Skellig, an award-winning and compelling children's novel adapted for the stage, the opera, and film.
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Imitation for a good reason, imitation for a stupid reason, or imitation just by instinct: "Monkey see, monkey do" covers them all. But what's with the non-standard grammar? Why isn't it "Monkey sees, monkey does"? Or "What a monkey sees, it does?"
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
A Baker's Dozen: Words to Know *Before* You Cook
Plus a Vocabulary List of 100 more for good measure(-ing)
Don't wait until a half-hour before guests arrive to realize you haven't the slightest clue what deglaze means. Recipes are not about food. They're about words.
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