Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 26, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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bolide
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Subjunctive MoodThe subjunctive mood refers to verbs that are used to describe hypothetical or non-real actions, events, or situations. Verbs do not have different forms to express the subjunctive mood in English. What is done to them to convey the meaning we wish to achieve? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The CrinolineCrinoline is a stiff fabric made with cotton warp and horsehair. By the 1850s, the term was being applied to a large, steel-framed underskirt used to give skirts a fuller shape. This sort of crinoline enjoyed widespread popularity for over a decade despite the fact that it could endanger one’s life. It is believed that a number of women burned to death in part because their crinolines made their garments more flammable. How, according to legend, did a crinoline save the life of one jilted lover? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Boston Red Sox Sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees (1919)Between 1914 and 1919, Ruth compiled an outstanding pitching record, but because pitchers do not play in every game, he was shifted to the outfield so that his powerful hitting could be used consistently. The following season, he was sold to the New York Yankees, and his batting feats and public personality helped salvage baseball's popularity, which had been damaged by the Black Sox scandal. According to legend, Ruth was sold by the owner of the Red Sox in order to finance what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780)Somerville became an accomplished science writer at a time when women's involvement in the sciences was generally discouraged. She earned widespread recognition for her 1831 translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace's five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics), a project she undertook for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which aimed to adapt scientific material for the rapidly expanding reading public. What term was coined in a review of one of her other works? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Though home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration.Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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long pig— obsolete Human flesh when eaten as food by cannibals. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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_in_Dingle,_Co_Kerry.jpg) St. Stephen's Day (Ireland) (2024)On this day in c. 35, St. Stephen became the first Christian martyr. He was denounced as a blasphemer by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council in ancient Palestine, and stoned to death. In many countries, St. Stephen's Day is celebrated as an extra Christmas holiday. In Ireland, boys with blackened faces carrying a paper wren go about begging and "hunting the wren." The hunting of the wren is most likely a carryover from an old belief that the robin, symbolizing the New Year, killed the wren, symbolizing the Old, at the turning of the year. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: standscircumstance - Literally "that which stands around (something)." More... cost - Something that costs a particular amount literally "stands at or with" that price, from Latin constare, "to be settled or fixed, stand at a price, cost." More... stem - The stem of a tree is etymologically the upright part, the part that "stands" up, from its Germanic base sta-, "stand." More... wing it - Comes from theatrical jargon, referring to the hurried study of lines by an understudy in the wings, or to the help given by a prompter who stands in the wings of a theater. More... | |