Some proverbs confer wisdom onto us. They tell us how we should conduct ourselves and how the world works. After all, fortune favors the brave, and a stitch in time saves nine. On the other hand, other proverbs warn us from making mistakes, mistakes that are part and parcel of being human. For example, we …
Vocabulary
What makes a certain expression or proverb immortal? Why do some sayings get passed down from generation to generation, even crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries, while other sayings rarely make it past a single generation and are quickly forgotten, only to be remembered by curious historians who ask themselves how humanity could have ever used …
An integral part of becoming fluent in any language is learning their idiomatic expressions. After all, if you want to have a full-on conversation with a native English speaker, they are bound to use expressions like “give someone the cold shoulder” and “go on a wild goose chase.” And, unless you know what these expressions …
Some proverbs and expressions become so popular that they end up being part and parcel of the language, adorning it and adding more flavor to conversations, sort of like flowers blossoming on a branching tree. For instance, a couple of years ago, I was at a restaurant with a friend of mine when an old …
Stock phrases are often really interesting from a linguistic point of view. In some ways, you can think of them as tide pools. When the overall ocean of old language rolls away, we’re left with small places where old, uncommon words remain in usage despite being otherwise forgotten. You might be asking yourself, “What’s with …
Even though the election results were announced mid-November of 2020, the effects of this momentous event are still reverberating at the time of this writing, mid-January 2021. It was only a few days ago when the rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, and there is currently talk of impeaching President Trump for a second time. With …
If you grew up in the 1980s, odds are you spent a healthy portion of your childhood watching the G.I. Joe cartoon on TV. If not, you were, at the very least, aware of the Hasbro G.I. Joe toys, trading cards, movies, video games, and even comic books. G.I. Joe was everywhere. Anyway, in an …
Some languages, like Welsh and French, have different feminine and masculine words for professions and other words describing people. English is inconsistent with this practice, sometimes making it difficult to tell what the right word is to use when referring to someone who does a specific profession or task. Sometimes, things are made even more …
According to yougov.com, the TV game show “Jeopardy!” is considered the most popular contemporary TV show, and it also has the enviable position of being the tenth most famous. Fans of the show will describe it as entertaining, engaging, educational, well-researched, and timeless. That last descriptor, timeless, carries all the more weight when you consider …