Daily Content Archive

(as of Thursday, October 18, 2018)
Word of the Day

do-gooder

Definition:(noun) Someone devoted to the promotion of human welfare and to social reforms.
Synonyms:humanitarian, improver
Usage: A do-gooder to the core, she spends all of her free time and nearly all of her money helping the homeless.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Common and Proper Nouns

Common nouns identify general, nonspecific people, places, or things. A proper noun names someone or something that is one of a kind, which is signified by the use of what? More...
Article of the Day

Conscription

Conscription, compulsory enrollment in a country's armed forces, existed as early as the 27th century BCE in Egypt. Since then, forms of obligatory military service have been recorded in countless cultures; Japanese samurai, Aztec warriors, and citizen militiamen in ancient Greece and Rome are just a few examples of conscripted forces. Conscription in the modern sense dates from 1793, when the French Republic raised an army of 300,000 men. What countries draft women into military service? More...
This Day in History

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher Destroyed (1009 CE)

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City is venerated by most Christians as the site of Jesus' burial chamber and has been an important destination of pilgrimage since the 4th century. Its destruction in 1009 by caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is often viewed as a direct impetus for the Crusades, though the church was rebuilt prior to the Crusaders' arrival. The custodianship of the church is now grudgingly shared by several Churches. Who holds the key to the church's main entrance? More...
Today's Birthday

Pierre Trudeau (1919)

As prime minister of Canada from 1968–79 and 1980–84, Trudeau advocated a strong federal government and took a determined stand against the Quebec separatist movement. Despite his opposition to Quebec's independence, he supported Canadian sovereignty and secured for the country a new constitution in 1982 that precipitated its official independence from Britain. He also had French adopted as an official state language. How did Trudeau figure into an alleged plot to assassinate Fidel Castro? More...
Quotation of the Day
It is the same with man as with the tree ... The more he seeketh to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark and deep—into the evil.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Idiom of the Day

put the wind up (someone)

To make someone very anxious, upset, or frightened. More...
Today's Holiday

Nagoya Festival (2023)

An annual secular festival in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, the Nagoya Festival was started by the city's merchants in 1955 to give thanks for their prosperity. It features a parade of about 700 participants depicting historical figures in period costume, among them Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the three feudal warlords who unified the country at the end of the 16th century. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: sails

crab-skuit - A small, open fishing boat with sails. More...

haul - Originally had the nautical meaning of "to trim the sails to sail closer to the wind." More...

sail - Once meant specifically "to travel on a ship with sails," and, later, "to travel on any ship"; figuratively, it means "to go through effortlessly," as in, "to sail through the exam." More...

three sheets to the wind - Pertains to chains that regulate the angle of sails; if the sheets were loose, the boat would become unstable and tipsy. More...

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