Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, February 7, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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fritter
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Nouns with Inherent Gender IdentityThere is a relatively small amount of nouns in English that are inherently gendered because they describe members of the male or female sex; they do not use suffixes to alter the meaning of an existing word. Most commonly, they are terms describing what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Simple MachinesPractically every machine in existence incorporates one or more simple machines, elementary mechanical devices that change the magnitude or the direction of a force. These include the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. The idea of the "simple machine" originated with the Greek philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd century BCE, but it was not until 1600 that scientists showed that simple machines only transform energy and do not create it. Who figured this out? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Émile Zola Is Put on Trial for Publishing "J'Accuse" (1898)A Jewish officer in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus was falsely convicted of treason in 1894. When officers discovered that the evidence against Dreyfus was false—and that he was most likely a victim of anti-Semitism—they covered it up. Writer Émile Zola exposed the scandal by publishing in a newspaper an open letter titled "J'accuse." Zola was tried and convicted of criminal libel but fled the country, which was divided by the scandal. What happened to Dreyfus and Zola? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (1867)Wilder was the American author of a classic series of children's books based on her childhood. Born in Wisconsin after the Civil War, she traveled with her pioneer family throughout the Midwest by covered wagon for years before settling in the Dakota Territory. As a farmer and mother she struggled for years. Her first novel, Little House in the Big Woods was not published until 1932, when she was 65. How many of her books, which spawned a popular TV show, were published after her death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be made of sterner stuff— To be very strong, determined, or of uncompromising character, especially in comparison to others. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Grenada Independence Day (2025)This is a national holiday commemorating Grenada's independence from Britain on this day in 1974. Britain had held the island since the 18th century, when France ceded it under the Treaty of Paris. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: plasticaglet - The plastic or metal covering on the end of a shoelace (formerly called the point) that makes it easier to thread through the eyelet holes. More... plastic - From Greek plastos, "to form, mold." More... plastic surgery - Dates to 1837; "plastic" is used in the sense of "molding, shaping." More... velo binding - A type of document fastener using a narrow strip of plastic on the front and back and attached with thin plastic pegs through the pages; also called velobind. More... | |