Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, October 1, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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poltroon
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Types of Prepositional IdiomsPrepositional idioms combine prepositions with verbs, nouns, or phrases to create idiomatic expressions. What two categories can these expressions be divided into? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 False FriendsFalse friends are words that look or sound the same in different languages but have different meanings. Unlike false cognates, which are completely unrelated, false friends may have a shared origin. For example, gift has a far more sinister German meaning—poison—than it does in English, though both languages derive the word from the same Germanic root. How might a new Spanish speaker worsen her situation by mistakenly using the word embarazada to indicate that she is embarrassed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Honeymooners Premiers on CBS (1955)The Honeymooners was a short-lived American sitcom based on sketches by comedian Jackie Gleason. It starred Gleason and Audrey Meadows as a struggling working class couple in New York—a drastic departure from other popular comedies of the era that depicted their characters in comfortable, middle-class, suburban environments. Though The Honeymooners was cancelled after just 39 episodes, it has been aired for decades in syndication. What animated TV series did Gleason's show inspire? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews (1935)Andrews is a British actress and singer best known for her roles in films such as The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, for which she won an Academy Award. However, she was first a Broadway musical star. She made her London debut at age 12 in a revue and her New York City stage debut seven years later. She went on to originate the roles of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Guinevere in Camelot. She also made several films with her director husband. Who was he? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn't take half as long to say.Edith Wharton (1862-1937) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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(it's) little wonder— It is not at all surprising (that something is the case). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 International Day of Older Persons (2024)The United Nations General Assembly decided to set aside October 1 as International Day for the Elderly in 1990 (later designated as the International Day of Older Persons). By designating a day when governments are supposed to focus on what they can do to provide for the elderly, the U.N. hopes not only to forestall problems related to the aging of the population but to focus attention on the promise that a maturing population holds for social undertakings. The United Nations also set aside the year 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sacksachet - Etymologically, a "little sack"—a small packet of perfumed matter. More... cul-de-sac - Literally French for "bottom of a sack," it also means "situation from which there is no escape"; it can be pluralized as cul-de-sacs or culs-de-sac. More... gunny - From Sanskrit goni, "sack," it is the material used for sacks, made from jute or sunn-hemp. More... haversack, knapsack, rucksack - Haversack is from German Haber, "oats," and Sack, "bag, sack"; knapsack is from German knapper, "to bite (food)" and zak, "sack"; rucksack comes from German Rucken, "back," and sack. More... | |