Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, November 29, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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sacrilegious
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Making a Noun MasculineNouns that are, were, or can be distinguished between feminine and masculine genders are often masculine in their basic form. Masculine nouns tend to end in what two suffixes? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Star FortsWhen the maneuverable siege cannon came into use in the 15th century, military engineers had to rethink medieval-style fortifications, whose tall, broad walls were highly vulnerable to cannon fire. They developed the star fort, or trace italienne, a flat, tiered structure composed of low, thick walls embedded in ditches, whose complex shape allowed defensive cannons to cover interlocking fields of fire. What technologies eventually rendered the star fort's intricate geometry irrelevant? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The November Uprising Begins (1830)An attempt to overthrow Russian rule in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, the November Uprising was the result of long-simmering resentments that came to a head when news broke of a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress revolutions in France and Belgium. It began when a group of Warsaw-based Polish Imperial Russian Army cadets took up arms against the Russians and drove the Russian troops from the city. The rebellion soon grew and spread. How long did the fighting continue? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Mildred Gillars, AKA Axis Sally (1900)Mildred Sisk was born in Portland, Maine, but went to Europe in the 1920s, changed her name, and by 1934 was an English-language radio broadcaster in Berlin. During World War II, she broadcast Nazi propaganda aimed to demoralize American troops, who nicknamed her "Axis Sally." On the radio, Gillars emphasized the infidelity of soldiers' wives and sweethearts while they were overseas. She was convicted of treason in 1949 and spent 12 years in prison. What did she do after she was released? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Promises and pie-crusts are made to be broken.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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to (one's) heart's desire— As much as or to the point that one wants; to the point of contentment, satiety, or surfeit. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Andrew's Eve (2021)The eve of St. Andrew's Day is a special night for young Polish girls who want to find husbands. They play Andrzejki, or "Andrew's games," a kind of fortune telling. They break off dry branches from cherry trees, place them in wet sand, and tend them carefully for the next few weeks. If the branch blooms by Christmas, it is believed that they will marry within the year. Pouring liquid wax into cold water is another popular method of foretelling their romantic futures. The shapes formed by the hardened wax often provide clues with which they can read their fate. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: polessedan chair - An enclosed chair carried on poles. More... oblate, prolate - Oblate means "flattened at the poles," and the opposite is prolate; the Earth is an oblate spheroid. More... tent - Comes from a Latin word for "stretch," as early tents were made from cloth or skins stretched on poles. More... running boards - Originally extended from bow to stern on canal boats—which men walked along, propelling the boats with poles. More... | |