Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, March 16, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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habit-forming
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ConjugationConjugation refers to the way we inflect (change the form of) verbs to create particular meanings. What is grammatical tense? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Legend of El DoradoEl Dorado is the legendary golden city sought by 16th- and 17th-century explorers in the New World. The legend is said to derive from a custom of the Chibcha people of Colombia who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake while casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters. The supposed location of the fabled city shifted as new regions were explored and ruled out. In what places did the conquistadors search for El Dorado? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Caligula Becomes Emperor of Rome (37 CE)When Caligula became the Roman emperor in 37 CE, replacing the hated Tiberius, the public welcomed his reign, and for a time it was uneventful. Seven months later, he fell severely ill, and when he recovered, he was a changed man. Suddenly, his reign was marked by financially ruinous extravagance, unmatched cruelty, and rampant executions, even of his former supporters. He was assassinated within a few years. What may have caused the mental instability Caligula displayed after his illness? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750)Caroline Herschel was a British astronomer. At the age of 10, she contracted typhus, which permanently stunted her growth—but not her ambition. Her family assumed that she would never marry because of her height and trained her to be a household servant. But when her brother, Sir William Herschel, took up astronomy and accepted the position of King's Astronomer, she joined him as his assistant and assumed the laborious task of cataloguing thousands of stars and nebulae. What did she discover? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 By what strange law of mind is it that an idea long overlooked, and trodden under foot as a useless stone, suddenly sparkles out in new light, as a discovered diamond?Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have a go (at something)— To attempt to do or undertake something, especially that which is unfamiliar or new. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Urho's Day (2020)St. Urho, whose name in Finnish means "hero," is credited with banishing a plague of grasshoppers that was threatening Finland's grape arbors. His legend in the United States was popularized in the 1950s; after being celebrated as a "joke holiday" for several years in the Menahga-Sebeka area, the idea spread to other states with large Finnish populations. The actual celebrations include wearing St. Urho's official colors—Nile Green and Royal Purple—drinking grape juice, and chanting St. Urho's famous words, "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go away," in Finnish. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: punishexecute - Derives from Latin exsequi, "carry out, follow up; punish." More... gruelling - Comes from the verb gruel, "to exhaust, punish." More... punish - Derives from Latin punire, "punish," which came from poena, "penalty, punishment." More... penal, punitive - Penal means "relating to punishment," while punitive means "serving to punish." More... | |