Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, January 7, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pharos
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Absolute PhrasesAn "absolute phrase" is a grammatically independent group of words that serves to modify or add information to an entire sentence. What is an absolute phrase usually made up of? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Shetland PonyAlthough the Shetland is one of the smallest breeds of horse, measuring no more than 46 inches (117 cm) high, it is extremely hardy and needs little care, having adapted to the harsh climate and scarcity of food in Scotland's Shetland Islands. Shetland ponies were thus used as pack horses and worked in England's coal mines in the 19th century. These diminutive horses are also known for their gentle disposition and are a favorite mount for children. Shetland ponies can live to be how old? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Galileo Galilei Discovers Three of Jupiter's Four Largest Moons (1610)Jupiter has more than 60 moons. The four largest—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—were the first satellites of a planet other than Earth to be detected. They were discovered by Galileo in 1610, shortly after he invented the telescope, and are therefore known as the Galilean satellites. On January 7, 1610, Galileo observed near Jupiter what he described at the time as "three fixed stars, totally invisible by their smallness." How long did it take Galileo to discover the fourth? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Zora Neale Hurston (1891)An anthropologist, folklorist, and author, Hurston spent much of her life collecting African-American folktales in the rural South and in other places, such as Haiti, Bermuda, and Honduras. She was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance and collaborated with her friend Langston Hughes on the play Mule Bone in 1931. Along with her folklore collections, she also wrote four novels, including the influential Their Eyes Were Watching God. Why did the book inspire controversy? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be looking for trouble— To be doing something or acting in a manner that will very likely result in trouble, difficulty, or danger. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.png) Distaff Day (2025)After the 12-day Christmas celebration ended on Epiphany, St. Distaff's Day was traditionally the day on which women resumed their chores, symbolized by the distaff, a tool used in spinning flax or wool. It was also called Rock Day—"rock" being another name for the distaff. The "spear side" and the "distaff side" were legal terms used to distinguish the inheritance of male from that of female children, and the distaff eventually became a synonym for the female sex as a whole. Distaff Day was not really a church festival, but it was widely observed at one time in England. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: uniformman of the cloth - Originally applied to anyone who wore a uniform or livery for work. More... mufti - Civilian clothes worn by a person who usually wears a uniform. More... uniform - Something that is uniform has literally only "one form," from Latin unus, "one," and forma, "form." More... doughboy - The small round doughnuts served to sailors in the 19th century were called doughboys—and they resembled the round buttons on the sailors' uniforms—so the sailors came to be known as this. More... | |