Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, November 14, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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gaunt
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Inflection (Accidence)Inflection (also known as accidence or flection) is the way in which a word is changed or altered in form in order to achieve a new, specific meaning. What is declension? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Hieratic Writing SystemHieratic, first used around 3,000 BCE, was the basic writing system of the ancient Egyptian pharaonic period and provided a simpler alternative to the contemporaneous hieroglyphic system. It was generally written with ink on papyrus and was often used to compose administrative documents and letters, as well as legal, literary, and religious texts. Much of what is now known about the lives of common Egyptians has been deciphered from such texts. What writing system is descended from hieratic? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Shipboard Aircraft Takeoff (1910)A year after learning to fly, aviator Eugene Ely performed an experiment for the US Navy: he took off from a temporary platform built over the bow of the USS Birmingham, anchored off Virginia's coast, and became the first person to take off from a ship in a fixed-wing aircraft. Two months later, he performed the first shipboard landing, using the first tailhook system to land on the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay, California. He died less than a year later while doing what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Astrid Lindgren (1907)Lindgren was a Swedish children's book author and screenwriter best remembered for writing the series of books featuring the character Pippi Långstrump, or Pippi Longstocking. Pippi, an unconventional, assertive, and extraordinarily strong girl—recognized by her fiery red hair worn in braids that stick out sideways from her head—was featured in many of Lindgren's hundreds of books, which sold roughly 145 million copies worldwide. What other memorable characters did Lindgren create? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have eyes bigger than (one's) stomach— To take more food than one is actually capable of eating. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Plebeian Games (2023)The Roman leader Flaminius is thought to have instituted the Plebeian Games in 220 BCE. They originally may have been held in the Circus Flaminius, which he built. Later, they may have moved to the Circus Maximus, a huge open arena between the Palatine and Aventine hills. The Games were dedicated to Jupiter, one of whose feast days was November 13, and included horse and chariot races and contests that involved running, boxing, and wrestling. The festival lasted from November 4-17, and its first nine days were devoted to theatrical performances. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sufferimpatient - Meaning "not able to bear or suffer," based on Latin pati, "to suffer." More... compatible - Its base is Latin compati, "suffer with." More... harrow, harrowing - To harrow is to wound the feelings or cause to suffer—which gives us harrowing. More... suffer - To suffer something is, etymologically, to "hold or sustain it from underneath," from Latin sufferre, "sustain." More... | |