Which came first: the editor or the edit? The answer reveals a fascinating linguistic process called back-formation, where we reverse-engineer…
Just as paleontologists study fossils to understand ancient life, we can explore the fossils in our own language. Linguistic taphonomy…
Ever wonder why so many people say 'probly' instead of 'probably' or 'libry' instead of 'library'? This common linguistic shortcut…
The telegraph, with its per-word cost, forced writers to perform linguistic surgery, stripping sentences down to their bare essentials. This…
How does a word forged in hate become a banner of pride? The process, known as reappropriation, is a powerful…
That familiar red squiggle under a misspelled word isn't magic; it's a marvel of computational linguistics. This post explores the…
Ever wonder who decides when a word like 'rizz' is official? This post delves into the surprisingly political world of…
Before the printing press, scribes used a secret code of symbols and shortcuts to write faster and save precious parchment.…
Have you ever noticed you talk to Siri differently than you talk to a person? We've developed a unique "Machine…
** Have you ever wondered why *shirt* and *skirt* sound so similar? They are "etymological doublets"—words from the same root…
This website uses cookies.