Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, March 16, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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flitter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Imperfective AspectAs there is no separate verb form in English for the imperfective aspect, it is expressed through different grammatical structures, which change depending on what we are saying about the temporal structure of the action. We sometimes classify these structures as what two subclasses of the imperfective? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The OctothorpeIn the US, it is most frequently called a pound or number sign. In the UK, it is called a hash. Elsewhere, it is referred to as a hex. Desiring an unambiguous name for the now-ubiquitous key, phone engineers coined the word "octothorpe" in the 1960s, but it never gained wide usage. "Octo" refers to the symbol's eight arms, but the origin of "thorpe" is less clear. One theory is that it is a reference to the symbol’s resemblance to a village surrounded by fields. Why is it called a pound sign? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Ferdinand Magellan Reaches the Philippines (1521)Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain on September 20, 1519, with five vessels and about 265 men. Sighting the South American coast near Pernambuco, he searched for a suspected passage to the South Sea and ultimately discovered the strait that bears his name. On March 6, 1521, Magellan reached the Marianas and 10 days later the Philippines, where he was killed in a battle with the natives. How many of Magellan's original crew members returned to Spain alive in 1522? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Rosa Bonheur (1822)One of the most famous female painters of the 19th century, Bonheur was trained by her father—an art teacher—and began regularly exhibiting her work at the Paris Salon in 1841. Her unsentimental paintings of animals became very popular, particularly in England and the US, and her most famous painting, The Horse Fair, gained her an international reputation. Who gave her formal permission to dress as a man so that she could study horses at the actual Horse Fair in Paris? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The nations of the earth are mostly swayed by fear—fear of the sort that a little cheap oratory turns easily to rage, hate, and violence.Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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roll (one's) eyes— To turn one's eyes upward or around in a circle, usually as an expression of exasperation, annoyance, impatience, or disdain. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Urho's Day (2022)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: newsgazette - A gazzetta, a Venetian coin of little value, gave rise to the phrase gazzetta de la novita, "halfpennyworth of news," which eventually gave us gazette. More... silly season - Any slow news period characterized by trivial news or no news. More... tidings - Probably comes from Old Norse tithindi, "news of events." More... report - To report something is etymologically to "carry it back," from Latin reportare; the metaphorical sense of "bringing back news" also developed in Latin. More... | |