Have you encountered the expression “to dance with the devil” somewhere and wondered what it meant? If you enjoy dancing, you might have thought to yourself that that part sounds like fun. On the other hand, maybe doing anything with the devil isn’t the best idea. The phrase “to dance with the devil” is an …
Vocabulary
Sometimes, whether you’re a native speaker or learning a language, knowing the meaning of words in a sentence isn’t quite enough to fully understand what is conveyed. This can be the case with sayings or idioms, which are collections of words that have a specific meaning. For example, if you hear the phrase “boulevard of …
Sometimes, you might hear someone disdainfully comment about a nonstandard English word, “That’s just a made-up word.” You might then hear someone counter by saying, “All words are made up,” and this is true. Language does not operate based on scientific principles in the way that, for example, gravity does. However, the main purpose of …
Most of us have heard the phrase “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” It is often incorrectly attributed to Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. While Jobs did use the phrase during a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, he was quoting from The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC). WEC was a science magazine that was published between …
There are very few of us who wouldn’t recognize the intro to the 1982 hard rock hit “Eye of the Tiger.” The song was written by the band Survivor at the request of Sylvester Stallone. It became the highlight of the soundtrack of Stallone’s hit boxing movie Rocky III. The punchy, staccato riff of the …
Idioms are groups of words whose meaning is not deducible from the literal meanings of the individual words. Because the words in idioms cannot be interpreted literally, it can be difficult to understand what they mean at the best of times. But they are even more difficult to understand when they contain words that have …
Writing cards or online posts to congratulate our friends on the important milestones in their lives is important. It should be easy enough to express well wishes to someone you care about. Doing so can be complicated, however, if we are unsure about which words to use to express what we are congratulating them for. …
Smileys are one of the internet’s most widespread forms of communication. Social media websites have dozens of pictures to add to messages, and everyone knows the meaning of the most common text smileys, such as 🙁 or :). Some smileys, however, can be confusing. Let’s take a look at :v What does :v mean? …
“I may not be a lion, but I am lion’s cub and I have lion’s heart.”- Elizabeth I. An unwavering metaphor having stood against the tide of time, the “heart of a lion” can be dated back to Elizabeth I. Used in scores of literary works, the stark comparison to a lion’s heart leaves a …