Tag: education
member name: The Editors of the American Heritage(R) Dictionaries
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August 27, 2008 09:33 AM EDT --
LITERALLY
For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherence of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of "in a manner . . . more
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January 26, 2007 11:30 AM EST --
MARSHMALLOW
Marshmallows were originally medicine, despite their modern reputation as the fluffiest of foods and the emptiest of calories. They were originally made from the root of the marsh . . . more
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June 29, 2007 02:36 PM EDT --
VENOM
Anyone who has ever been lovesick will appreciate the etymology of the word venom. Venom descends from the Latin word venenum, “potion, drug,” which could originally be used to designate . . . more
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July 31, 2007 02:32 PM EDT --
A DEFINE-A-THON is the new word game sensation created by the Editors of the American Heritage ® Dictionaries. Why are they taking us beyond the spelling bee? Because being able to SPELL a word doesn't . . . more
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August 31, 2007 01:47 PM EDT --
Vamoose
The verb to vamoose, "to leave hurriedly," has a full range of tenses and grammatical moods in English, and it can be used with all grammatical persons: . . . more
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November 28, 2007 01:43 PM EST --
A DEFINE-A-THON is the new word game sensation created by the Editors of the American Heritage ® Dictionaries. Why are they taking us beyond the spelling bee? Because being able to SPELL a word doesn't . . . more
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June 11, 2008 02:32 PM EDT --
A DEFINE-A-THON is the new word game sensation created by the Editors of the American Heritage ® Dictionaries. Why are they taking us beyond the spelling bee? Because being able to SPELL . . . more
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July 18, 2008 11:18 AM EDT --
COUPON
A Roman might have had difficulty predicting what would become of the Latin word colaphus, which meant "a blow with the fist." As the variety of Latin spoke in . . . more
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January 22, 2007 01:52 PM EST --
RIOT ACT
The riot act has been read to far more people than the disturbers of the peace the Riot Act was intended to control. The official Riot Act was enacted by Parliament of the United Kingdom . . . more
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February 08, 2007 10:03 AM EST --
ACCURACY / PRECISION
In general use, the words accuracy and precision have close but distinct meanings. When we speak of the accuracy of a description, we are referring to how well it corresponds to the . . . more
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February 20, 2007 11:40 AM EST --
NEUTRAL GROUND
The strip of grass dividing the opposing lanes of an avenue or a highway is known by a variety of terms in the United States. The most common term, used almost everywhere except . . . more
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June 25, 2007 10:58 AM EDT --
A DEFINE-A-THON is the new word game sensation created by the Editors of the American Heritage(R) Dictionaries. Why are they taking us beyond the spelling bee? Because being able to SPELL a word doesn't . . . more
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July 06, 2007 01:59 PM EDT --
UGLY
The standard sense of the adjective ugly, “unsightly,” becomes figurative in the common expression an ugly temper. Regional American speech shared this figurative sense and makes it . . . more
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September 07, 2007 03:40 PM EDT --
barracuda
Barracuda are fierce-looking fish that live mostly in tropical seas like the Caribbean. They have a projecting lower jaw, and their large mouth holds two rows, one behind the other, of fanglike . . . more
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December 05, 2007 01:22 PM EST --
ACRIMONY
Noun
Bitter, sharp hostility, especially in speech.
Some conversations I have heard in our own country sound like old records, long-playing, left over . . . more
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January 30, 2008 03:28 PM EST --
IRREGARDLESS
Irregardless is a word that many people mistakenly believe to be correct in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. The word . . . more
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May 22, 2008 02:20 PM EDT --
A DEFINE-A-THON is the new word game sensation created by the Editors of the American Heritage ® Dictionaries. Why are they taking us beyond the spelling bee? Because being able to SPELL . . . more
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July 02, 2008 02:20 PM EDT --
SCHLOCK
A good number of English words borrowed from Yiddish (a variety of German with an admixture of Hebrew and Slavic elements) are recognizably of foreign extraction because they begin . . . more
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August 08, 2007 03:10 PM EDT --
VERBIAGE
The term verbiage has two basic meanings: “an excess of words for the purpose; wordiness,” and “the manner in which something is expressed in words.” It is occasionally . . . more
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August 10, 2007 03:24 PM EDT --
SARCASM
A sarcastic comment can cut to the quick, and from an etymological point of view, sarcasm is quite literally “cutting wit.” The English word sarcasm comes from the Greek word . . . more
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