Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, February 5, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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overblown
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining Abstract Countable NounsEven though abstract nouns, such as "emergency" and "conversation," are not tangible, many of them can still be counted as separable units. Like concrete nouns, they can take the indefinite articles "a" or "an." Can they be made plural? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 James the JustJames the Just was an important figure in early Christianity whose exact relationship to Jesus has been the subject of much debate. Several early sources refer to him as the "brother" of Jesus, and scholars differ about whether he was a half-brother, cousin, or merely a brother in spirit like the other apostles. After Jesus’ crucifixion, James led the Christian movement as the first bishop of Jerusalem. What evidence exists to explain how James might or might not have been related to Jesus? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Royal Greenwich Observatory Begins Broadcasting Hourly Time Signals (1924)The Greenwich Time Signal, popularly known as "the pips," is a series of six short tones broadcast by many BBC radio stations at the end of each hour to mark the precise start of the following hour. Devised by Astronomer Royal Frank Dyson in 1924, the signal consists of six pips that occur on the five seconds leading up to the hour, with the beginning of the sixth pip marking the actual moment when the hour changes. After nearly 90 years of marking time, why might the pips soon be silenced? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840)Mechanically gifted, Maxim learned several trades as a young man. He obtained his first patent, for a hair-curling iron, in 1866. By 1884, working in London, he had produced a devastatingly effective automatic machine gun capable of firing 660 rounds per minute. Every major power adopted the Maxim gun. The company he established to manufacture his invention, with several mergers, eventually became the British defense firm, Vickers Ltd. What were some of Maxim's "flying machines"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.Jane Austen (1775-1817) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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henpecked— Of a man, thoroughly and continually dominated, intimidated, bullied, or browbeaten by a woman, especially his wife or girlfriend. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Birthday of Runeberg (2024)Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) is widely regarded as Finland's greatest poet. Schools throughout Finland are closed on Runeberg's birthday. Busts and pictures of him are displayed in shop windows, particularly in Helsinki. A special ceremony is observed at Runeberg's monument in the Esplanade, where his statue is decorated with garlands of pine and spruce, suspended between four huge torches. At night the torches are lit, and lighted candles burn in the windows of houses and apartments. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tapfaucet - Probably comes from French fausset, meaning "bore, tap." More... tattoo - In the military sense—of a signal summoning soldiers to their quarters at night—it was originally written tap-too, from a Dutch word taptoe, meaning "close the tap" (of a cask), which was told to soldiers when they were expected to return to their quarters. More... tick, tickle - Tick, as in "sound of a clock," "mark of correctness," originally meant "light touch, tap," and its modern senses are recent developments; tickle is probably a derivative of this version of tick. More... tit for tat - Probably borrowed from Dutch tip for tap, "blow for blow." More... | |