Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, October 23, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
recalcitrant
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Defining Irrealis MoodsThe term irrealis means "unreal," and it refers to grammatical moods that reflect what is not actually the case. What are the two irrealis moods in English? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Marcus Licinius CrassusCrassus was the wealthiest man in Rome when he, along with Julius Caesar and Pompey, formed the First Triumvirate in 60 BCE. The three men were able to control Rome, and though Pompey and Crassus were jealous of each other, Caesar kept the arrangement going. However, seven years later, Crassus invaded Parthia, hoping for a victory to match the successes of Pompey and Caesar. His army of about 44,000 was defeated in the desert by 10,000 Parthian archers, and he was killed while trying to do what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Creation of the World, According to Archbishop James Ussher (4004 BCE)For centuries, Christian scholars have tried to deduce the precise date of creation, using Biblical sources to help guide them. One such scholar, 17th-century Irish archbishop James Ussher, devised a system of dates that sets the creation of the world at 4004 BCE. Ussher's chronology rests upon the beliefs that creation began in autumn—the season that marks the start of the year according to the Jewish lunisolar calendar—near the autumnal equinox and that creation began on what day of the week? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Michael Crichton (1942)While pursuing a medical degree at Harvard University, the intensely private Crichton began writing novels under a pseudonym. He published The Andromeda Strain during his final year and went on to write several best-selling works, many of which were made into films, including Jurassic Park and Congo. He unexpectedly died of throat cancer in 2008. While in college, he once submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name as an experiment. What grade did he receive? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe: evil spreads as necessarily as disease.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
a sticky situation— A particularly awkward, embarrassing, precarious, or difficult situation or circumstance. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Chulalongkorn Day (2025)Chulalongkorn Day is a national holiday in Thailand commemorating King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), the king who abolished slavery and introduced numerous reforms when the country was still called Siam. He succeeded to the throne in 1868 when he was 15 years old, was crowned in 1873, and ruled until his death in 1910. He had been a pupil of Anna Leonowens, who taught the young prince about Abraham Lincoln. The story of her stay in the royal court, and her teaching of the royal children and concubines, was told in Margaret Landon's book, Anna and the King of Siam. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: countryemancipate - Means "to free from legal, political, social control or restraint by others," and "to free from bondage." The word's Latin elements are manus, "hand," and capere, "to take," and first meant "to release or set free." More... assassin - Thought by some to derive from an Arabic word meaning "hashish user," as members of an Islamic sect in various countries during the time of the Crusades (13th century) ate hashish to intoxicate themselves before setting out to assasinate enemy leaders. More... patriot - Greek pater, "father," led to Latin patriota, "fellow countryman," which was the original meaning of patriot when it came into English in the late 1500s. More... country, nation - Both came into English c. 1330 and tend to be used interchangeably. Country comes from Latin contrata (terra), "the landscape in front of one, the landscape lying opposite to the view." Nation is from Latin nation-/natio, "race, class of person." More... | |