Daily Content Archive

(as of Saturday, September 29, 2018)
Word of the Day

snickersnee

Definition:(noun) Archaic The act of fighting with knives.
Synonyms:cut-and-thrust, knife fight
Usage: The snickersnee ended when one of the fighters lost consciousness due to blood loss.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Objects

Grammatical objects are nouns or pronouns that complete the meaning of verbs and prepositions. What is an indirect object? More...
Article of the Day

The History of Big Hair

Today, the term "big hair" generally evokes images of an eye-catching, untidy, voluminous hairstyle worn by conformist women in the 1970s and nonconformists of all sexes into the 1990s. However, the trend of exaggerating the volume of one's hair with wigs, tools, and hair products actually began centuries ago. In the 17th century, for example, long, curly wigs became fashionable among the French aristocracy in imitation of King Louis XIV. Who are some icons of big hair? More...
This Day in History

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Is Excommunicated (1227)

Prior to being excommunicated the first of several times, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had planned to go on a crusade. However, an epidemic waylaid him and a large part of his army, delaying the conquest. As a result, he was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. He eventually went on the postponed crusade and became king of Jerusalem. With Italy as the center of his power, Frederick, a religious skeptic, was in frequent conflict with the papacy. Frederick wrote the first book on what subject? More...
Today's Birthday

Enrico Fermi (1901)

Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi is known today as the "father of the atomic bomb." Fermi conducted early experiments with neutrons and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics. After receiving the award in Stockholm, Fermi and his family chose not return to Fascist Italy and instead settled in the US. There, he created the first self-sustaining chain reaction in 1942 and later worked on the atomic bomb. What so-called paradox named for Fermi involves extraterrestrial intelligent life? More...
Quotation of the Day
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Idiom of the Day

have (one's) druthers

To have one's choice or preference; to have things the way one would like them to be; to have one's way. Usually formulated as "if I had my druthers." Primarily heard in US. More...
Today's Holiday

Michaelmas (2023)

The Feast of the Archangel Michael, or the Day of St. Michael and All Angels, is a traditional feast day in the Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, and Orthodox churches. Churches dedicated to Michael can be found in Asia and throughout coastal Europe, usually in places where Michael is reputed to have saved the community from the threat of a monster or giant. The ninth-century abbey Mont St.-Michel, off the coast of Normandy, France, once held the shield said to have been worn by Michael in his fight against the dragon. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: silent

tacit - One of its early meanings was "wordless, noiseless," from Latin tacere, "be silent." More...

reticent - Based on Latin tacere, combined with re-, an intensive prefix. More...

silent - From Latin silere, "be silent." More...

mumchance - To be mumchance is to be dumbstruck and silent. More...

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