Daily Content Archive

(as of Wednesday, December 27, 2017)
Word of the Day

cipher

Definition:(noun) A person of no influence.
Synonyms:nobody, nonentity
Usage: He was a cipher in the estimation of the public, and nobody attached any importance to what he thought or did.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Idioms that Start with Prepositions

Most idioms that start with prepositions are prepositional phrases and consist of a preposition followed by a noun or noun phrase. What are the most common prepositions found at the beginning of prepositional idioms? More...
Article of the Day

Cities of Refuge

Cities of refuge were towns in the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah in which the perpetrators of manslaughter could claim the right of asylum. Outside of these cities, blood vengeance against such perpetrators was allowed by law. According to some regulations, perpetrators who had claimed asylum were to be taken from the city and put on trial; if found innocent, they were to be returned safely to the city of refuge, which they could ultimately leave without fear of harm when what happened? More...
This Day in History

Radio City Music Hall Opens in New York City (1932)

Developed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the Radio Corporation of America, and the creator of the Roxy Theatre, New York's landmark Radio City Music Hall opened with a lavish variety show that was not well received. Instead, the world's largest indoor theater began showing movies with accompanying stage spectacles. Recently, it has focused on concerts and live events such as the Grammy Awards. Its annual Christmas show remains a popular tourist attraction. What was the first film shown there? More...
Today's Birthday

Jakob Bernoulli (1654)

Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician who, with his brother Johann, pioneered German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz's calculus. The first to use the word "integral" in solving Leibniz's problem of the isochronous curve, Jakob used calculus to study the forms of many curves arising in practical situations. In 1713, he wrote Ars Conjectandi, or The Art of Conjecture, an important treatise on the theory of probability that contained the Bernoulli numbers, which are what? More...
Quotation of the Day
If there is one thing worse that the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals. Thus it is considered more withering to accuse a man of bad taste than of bad ethics.

Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936)

Idiom of the Day

hold the ring

To monitor or control a conflict or dispute, especially in a neutral or uninvolved manner. Primarily heard in UK. More...
Today's Holiday

Second Night of Kwanzaa (2023)

Kwanzaa is an African-American celebration of family and black culture. Each day is dedicated to one of seven principles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity), and imani (faith). Families gather in the evenings to discuss the principle of the day, and then light a black, red, or green candle and place it in a candleholder called a kinara. On the evening of Dec. 31, families join for a feast called the karamu. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: scent

breath - From an Old English word meaning "scent, smell." More...

flair - Comes from Latin fragrare, "smell sweet," and was first the ability to detect the "essence" or "scent" of something and know how to act accordingly. More...

red herring - Something intended to be misleading or distracting, so named from the practice of using the scent of red herring in training hounds. More...

relish - First meant "odor, scent," then "taste, flavor." More...

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