Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, March 28, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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brouhaha
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Noun Phrases of Varying LengthNoun phrases can be as short as two words, or they can be longer and have many words. The number of words in a phrase does not affect its status as a noun phrase, so long as it functions as what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Thomas Dunn EnglishThough he was an accomplished writer and politician, English is best known for his bitter feud with Edgar Allen Poe that turned physical at least once. They had once been friends, but in the early 1840s, their relationship deteriorated. Each began to publish thinly-veiled, mocking satires of the other. Poe included references to English in the revenge tale, The Cask of Amontillado, and English ridiculed Poe as a drunk. Eventually, Poe sued for libel and won. What led to their falling out? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Constantinople Becomes Istanbul (1930)The city now known as Istanbul was founded as the Greek colony of Byzantium in the 8th century BCE. Eventually passing to Alexander the Great, it became a free city under the Romans in the 1st century CE. Emperor Constantine I made the city the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330, later naming it Constantinople. It remained the capital of the subsequent Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the late 5th century and then changed hands several times. Why was it renamed Istanbul in 1930? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Schoolcraft (1793)Schoolcraft was a geologist, geographer, and ethnologist noted for his studies of Native American cultures as well as for his discovery of the source of the Mississippi River in 1832. His extensive relations with Native Americans—including his marriage to an Ojibwa woman—led to his appointment as an Indian agent, and he negotiated a treaty with the Ojibwa in 1836 that ceded much of their land to the US. Upon discovering the lake that feeds the Mississippi River, what did Schoolcraft name it? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Pleasures are more beneficial than duties, because, like the quality of mercy, they are not strained, and they are twice blest.Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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in all truthfulness— In one's sincere opinion; without any disingenuousness. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Teachers' Day in the Czech Republic (2024)March 28 is the birthday of Jan Amos Komensky (or John Comenius; 1592-1670), a noted educational reformer and theologian in the former Czechoslovakia. Komensky was the first person to write an illustrated textbook for children, used for teaching Latin words; he was also a proponent of compulsory education. It has been traditional for children to honor him on Teachers' Day, or Komensky Day, by bringing flowers and gifts to their teachers. The day is also observed with lectures, music, and educational activities. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: unluckydismal - Comes from French dies mali, "evil days," and first meant the 24 evil or unlucky days of the medieval calendar (two per month). More... infaust, infausting - Infaust is "unlucky" and infausting is "making unlucky." More... left-handed - Had a meaning of "unlucky" or "unseasonable." More... widdershins - Means "in a direction opposite of the usual one," but can also mean "unlucky." More... | |