We’ve all heard of "false friends"—words that look the same in different languages but mean different things. But what about…
Why do Japanese arigatō and Portuguese obrigado sound so similar? While it's tempting to invent a story of ancient contact,…
We've all heard humorous tales of language mix-ups, but so-called "false friends" can have consequences far beyond embarrassment. From derailing…
While many words degrade, some do the opposite in a process called amelioration. This post explores the linguistic glow-up of…
We trust our maps to tell us the truth, but what if they're lying? From Greenland's icy shores named to…
Every word has a family tree, but what about the "orphan words"—linguistic mysteries like *dog*, *bad*, and *quiz*—that appear in…
Stylometry is the statistical analysis of literary style, a fascinating field that uncovers a writer's unique "fingerprint" hidden within their…
Long before digital encryption, the ancient Spartans secured their military secrets with a simple but ingenious device: the Scytale. This…
A null cipher is a clever form of steganography where a secret is hidden within an ordinary-looking text. Instead of…
The male/female silhouette on a bathroom door and the Wi-Fi symbol on a café window are part of a global,…
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