Brothers and sisters
The readers of this blog may have noticed that I usually try to stay away from the oldest words in English, those with ancient Indo-European roots.
How to create visual (graphical) and video abstracts
Although the concept of visual abstract began even before the widespread use of the internet, with journals like Angewandte Chemie and Tetrahedron Letters featuring graphical abstracts in the late 20th century, it wasn’t widely used across all journals until the surge in scholarly papers and information overload.
Pen to Paper with Alexander Mikaberidze
Historian Alexander Mikaberidze reframes the Louisiana Purchase as part of a global story of empire, revolution, and political ambition. He discusses archival discoveries, Napoleonic history, and why the Purchase still matters today.
A few etymological pebbles
The readers of this blog must have noticed how often I suggest solutions connected with sound imitation. Time and again I say that a certain noun or verb owes its origin to onomatopoeia.
The level of our expertise: the perplexing verb baffle
What does it mean when a dictionary says: “Origin unknown”? We will soon see that the concept of “unknown” has several levels.
VSI 800: A history in eleven titles
To celebrate the publication of our 800th Very Short Introduction, we’ve put together a timeline featuring our series milestones, from our first Introduction co-authored by famed classicist Mary Beard, all the way to our upcoming introduction to rock ‘n’ roll.
Clinical Legal Education, Theory and Practice
Legal education, at least in the Anglosphere, has been undergoing a quiet but very recognisable transformation. The case study method, developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard in the 1870s, is steadily giving way to ‘authentic’, ‘real life’ or ‘experiential’ learning, wherein theory and practice are intermeshed.
Seeing red
The history of color names presents countless problems, and the literature on the subject is enormous. Today’s post is only about some curious uses of the word red in English.
Learn about telic and atelic predicates
Recently, I went to a talk on telicity in verbs. If the term is unfamiliar to you, you are not alone.
Aftermath and its kin
My story today is about several words referring to aftermath. All of them have a rather confusing sound shape.
Unbuttoned: an interactive history of the suit
To the modern eye, this man in his dark suit probably looks perfectly normal—perhaps even boring. But what if this ubiquitous uniform is actually one of the most powerful and heavily engineered political institutions in Western history?
Interdisciplinary horizons in human–animal studies
Over the last few decades, scholarship in the arts has undergone a significant shift towards questions and topics related to animals and our relationships with them.
Over 500 open access books: shaped by experience, strengthened by learning
When a collection passes 500 titles, it’s tempting to focus on the milestone. But what’s more interesting is the story behind the number, the years of collaboration between authors, editors, institutions, funders, and readers who share a commitment to making scholarship easier to discover, read, teach, and build upon.
In and out of the box
Today’s story is about boxing (that is, about the word box).
Spelling bee is back. So am I
Spelling Bee is back.
Restive people never rest
Some parts of the story I am going to tell can be found in most dictionaries, but it is the attempts to connect a few distant dots that may be interesting to those who wonder “where words come from.”