Daily Content Archive

(as of Monday, February 5, 2018)
Word of the Day

spittle

Definition:(noun) A clear liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands of the mouth; moistens the mouth and starts the digestion of starches.
Synonyms:saliva
Usage: Her face…was distorted with passion, and in her tumultuous speech the spittle dribbled over her lips.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Defining Abstract Countable Nouns

Even 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

Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, appear in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the war god Mars and priestess Rhea Silvia. Thrown into the Tiber River as infants, they were found by a she-wolf who nursed them and a shepherd who raised them. The two later built a city on the site where they were saved from the river, but an argument during its construction led Romulus to kill Remus. In its early days, Rome lacked female inhabitants, so Romulus organized the kidnapping of whom? More...
This Day in History

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

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
Appeal, v.t.: In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Idiom of the Day

henpecked

Of a man, thoroughly and continually dominated, intimidated, bullied, or browbeaten by a woman, especially his wife or girlfriend. More...
Today's Holiday

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

Today's topic: tap

faucet - 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...

June '24
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
March '24
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
December '23
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
July '23
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
April '23
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
February '23
SMTWTFS
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728    
October '22
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
July '22
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
February '22
SMTWTFS
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728     
January '22
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
October '21
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
May '21
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
February '21
SMTWTFS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28      
January '21
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
August '20
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
May '20
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
June '19
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
March '19
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
February '19
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
2425262728  
December '18
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
September '18
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
February '18
SMTWTFS
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728   
December '17
SMTWTFS
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
July '17
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
April '17
SMTWTFS
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
February '17
SMTWTFS
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728