June 12th is Loving Day
Peggy Pascoe shares the history of the holiday Loving Day, happening June 12th.
Technology – Podictionary Word of the Day
The podictionary word of the week is “technology”.
Widening and some deepening: How Britain joined the EU
An excerpt from The European Union: A Very Short Introduction.
Can You Trust Your (Etymological) Dictionary?
Anatoly Liberman demonstrates the difficulty of tracing the origins of every day words–especially considering the lack of consensus among linguists.
Health-care Reform:
A Litmus Test for a President and his Proposed Epoch
What health care reform means to Obama’s legacy.
Meet the Author: Nigel Warburton
Nigel Warburton talks about his book Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction.
Slang Words: Not What You Think
Ten slang words so hip they don’t even sound like slang.
Global Warming: Can We Turn Back the Clock?
Science historian Patricia Fara looks at environmentalism.
Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That: The Answer
The riddle answer!
Odyssey with Animals
Author Adrian Morrison looks at animal welfare/animal rights debate
Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That: Clue Three
The third and final clue in Gordon Thompson’s riddle.
Book Models
A look at two very personal cover images.
The Prop 8 Decision: What is a Constitution For?
William N. Eskridge, Jr. and Darren R. Spedale comment on the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold Prop 8.
DSNA 2009, or,
Why don’t more people go to conferences?
Ammon Shea reports on the Dictionary Society of North America Conference.
RT this: OUP Dictionary Team monitors Twitterer’s tweets
A recent study out of Harvard confirms Twitter is all vanity. This is not a big surprise to the dictionary team at Oxford University Press. OUP lexicographers have been monitoring more than 1.5 million random tweets Since January 2009 and have noticed any number of interesting facts about the impact of Twitter on language usage. For example the 500 words most frequently used on Twitter are significantly different from the top 500 in general English text.
Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That: Clue Two
Gordon Thompson provides clue number two.