Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, January 26, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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self-righteous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Regular and Irregular InflectionInflection, the way we change a word's form to reflect things like tense, plurality, gender, etc., is usually governed by consistent, predictable rules. This is known as "regular inflection." However, there are many instances in which the way a word is inflected doesn't seem to follow any rules or conventions at all—this is known as "irregular inflection." What part of speech is most commonly affected by irregular inflection? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 OstracismIn ancient Athens, ostracism was a method of temporarily banishing a public figure. Each year, the assembly took a preliminary vote to decide whether a vote of ostracism should be held. If a majority approved holding an ostracism, voters would put into an urn a piece of pottery—called an ostrakon—marked with the name of a person they wished to be ostracized. If at least 6,000 votes were cast, the person named on the most ostraka was exiled. How long did the exile last? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss Premieres (1911)Still regularly performed, Der Rosenkavalier is one of the most acclaimed comic operas of Richard Strauss, the leading composer of romantic opera in the early 20th century. It is loosely based on the works of Molière and Louvet de Couvrai and tells the story of the shifting romantic attachments of four principal characters. Strauss, who often abandoned tonality to emphasize the humor or drama of a scene, composed Der Rosenkavalier in collaboration with what poet? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Paul Leonard Newman (1925)Newman was an American actor who captured the darker, less heroic aspects of his best-remembered roles, such as those in The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. After eight nominations, he finally won an Academy Award for The Color of Money in 1986. In 1982, he launched his "Newman's Own" line of food products, donating the profits to various charitable causes. Why was Newman once placed on Richard Nixon's enemies list? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Fiddle, n.: An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse's tail on the entrails of a cat.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a bit beyond (one's) ken— Advanced beyond one's ability to understand or make sense of the subject matter or task at hand. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 India Republic Day (2020)This holiday is an important national festival in India, celebrating the day in 1950 when India's ties with Britain were severed and the country became a fully independent republic. The holiday is marked with parades and much celebration in all the state capitals, but the celebration in Delhi is especially grand. There is a mammoth parade with military units, floats from each state, dancers and musicians, and fly-overs. Independence Day on Aug. 15 is also a national holiday, but is observed chiefly with speech-making and none of the grandeur of Republic Day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: shakingpulsatilla - Can refer to the shaking of a flower in the wind. More... quassation - The act or process of being shaken or shaking. More... concussion - Its underlying etymological notion is of "violent shaking," from Latin concutere, "shake violently." More... Shaker - The Shakers got their name from the shaking and convulsive movements they made during worship. More... | |