Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, November 14, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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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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 TicsAlso called "habit spasms," tics are involuntary, compulsive, rapid, repetitive movements like blinking and shoulder shrugging or vocalizations that include grunts, barks, and other utterances. Their expression may be somewhat controlled, but much like an itch that must be scratched, sufferers ultimately feel impelled to go through with them. Stress has been known to exacerbate tics. What symptom of Tourette syndrome, one type of tic disorder, has been highly publicized but is relatively rare? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Apalachin Meeting (1957)The Apalachin Meeting was a summit of some 100 Mafiosi from the US, Canada, and Italy that was raided after their fancy cars and out-of-state license plates aroused the suspicions of law enforcement agents in Apalachin, New York. Fifty-eight Mafiosi, including bosses Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese, were detained. Perhaps the most significant consequence of the raid was that it confirmed the American Mafia's existence, a fact that had long been denied by what prominent law enforcement official? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891)Banting was a Canadian physician who, with Scottish physiologist John Macleod, won a 1923 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the hormone insulin. Banting and his assistant Charles Best experimented on diabetic dogs, demonstrating that insulin lowered their blood sugar. Insulin was proven effective on humans within months of the first experiments with dogs. In acknowledgment of Best's work, Banting gave him a share of his portion of the Nobel Prize. What tragic accident took Banting's life in 1941? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) | |
| 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: hurtaposiopesis - Stopping in the middle of a statement upon realizing that someone's feelings are hurt or about to be hurt; when a sentence trails off or falls silent, that is an aposiopesis. More... innocent - From Latin in-, "free from," and nocere, "hurt, injure." More... innocuous - "Harmless, not hurtful," from Latin in-, "not," and nocere, "to hurt." More... collide - Its Latin base is laedere, "hurt by striking." More... | |