NEW YORK — We’ve demure-d our way through 2024. We’ve played passenger princess. We’ve baked enough sourdough to cover the world with our bubbly starters. We’ve rawdogged it and we’ve hyped it. All of it. There’s lots to leave behind as the new year rolls around. Here’s a tiny tip of the iceberg of what … Read more
Give thanks for the good thangs. Saying the word “Thanksgiving” may seem straightforward, but Turkey Day’s official name bears a different utterance depending on where you are in the US, according to a study by online language learning platform Preply. “While there is no one correct way to say ‘Thanksgiving,’ there are regional differences which … Read more
Word. Researchers have discovered evidence of what they say is the world’s oldest alphabet, believed to have existed in the Middle East hundreds of years earlier than other ancient scripts. The early human discovery dating back to 2400 BC was made by analyzing clay fragments at a 16-year-long archaeological dig, Syria’s bronze-aged Tell Umm-el Marra, … Read more
The majority of baby boomers love to learn new things, but they think they’re too old to actually do so, according to new research. The survey of 2,000 Americans, split evenly by generation, revealed that although 74% of boomers said they “love” learning new things, and six in 10 find that learning something new is … Read more
A woman is attempting to ban the term “Dear sirs” from the workplace — dubbing it “archaic” and “sexist.” Ellie Rees, 48, has set up a petition to change the default term from “Dear sirs” to “Dear colleagues” or “Dear all” in legal correspondence — so it’s more inclusive of women. Ellie is lobbing the … Read more
What the “o”? Astonished people are finally learning the actual meaning of a phrase they say nearly every hour — and it’s “o’clock.” A woman who goes by @jenny_nuel1 on Threads asked her followers if anyone knows what the “o” actually stands for. “What’s the meaning of ‘O’ in o’clock???” wrote the self-described fashion designer. … Read more
What the actual f–k? Despite all the curses spewed at every delayed subway and rat scurrying out of the trash in our own city, New York itself doesn’t even make the top 15 of the most foul-mouthed states, according to a new study published by the word wizards at WordTips. In fact, New York State … Read more
MrBeast, YouTube’s biggest star and a philanthropic force with nearly unrivaled influence among young audiences, acknowledged Wednesday that he used “inappropriate language” in his early online days, as numerous controversies bubbled up around him and a former collaborator. MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, and his reported $700 million empire have come under new … Read more
It’s ding-guistics. Airplane passengers were blown away after learning that those ubiquitous “dings” on an airplane are actually a code crew members use to communicate with each other, among other things. A video detailing this “plane English” currently boasts nearly two million views on TikTok. “It turns out these [dings] are like a secret language … Read more
A wonder baby has managed to use sign language as a way to communicate with her deaf grandparents. Jane McCullough, a 6-month-old tot, has gone viral after her mom posted a TikTok of her daughter “babbling in sign language to grandma and grandpa.” In the caption of the video, her mom, Mara McCullough, wrote, “Notice … Read more
A nurse was diagnosed with a brain tumor which made her think people were speaking a different language – and she blames it on taking HRT. Lucy Woodhouse, 43, says she experienced severe headaches which felt like hangovers and struggled to read aloud. But then in a meeting with colleagues she found herself unable to … Read more
Kate Middleton put on “her game face” to get through the 2024 Trooping the Colour parade, according to a body language expert. “Looking at the first photograph of Kate Middleton and Prince William heading to the ceremony together, Kate is using a masking smile. It’s her game face,” Darren Stanton said on behalf of Slingo, … Read more
Translating Gen Z lingo just got that much harder. Couples, friends and siblings are unveiling their own secret languages, quizzing each other on their so-called “friend dictionary” in a hilarious TikTok trend started by the Zoomers, who already confuse onlookers with complex internet lingo. From dealing with a “nosetta,” or a nosey person, to eating … Read more
You may go gaga over this new study’s results. Babies with multilingual mothers process sound differently in their brains and are more sensitive to a wider range of pitches, according to a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. “Here we show that exposure to monolingual or a bilingual speech has different effects at … Read more
Their slang game has rizzen to new heights. The youngins of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are evoking some old-time 1990s technology into their already-obscure slang. But their latest phrase, “fax, no printer” — a TikToker went viral for saying it in 2021 — has very little to do with dated office devices from before … Read more
Say what? It turns out that not everyone has an inner voice — and the 5% to 10% of the population without one may struggle to perform certain memory tests, a new study finds. Linguist Johanne Nedergård from the University of Copenhagen and Gary Lupyan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have coined the term “anendophasia” to … Read more
WTF BRO, LOL?! Trying to decipher Gen Z-speak can be like endeavoring to crack the DaVinci code for most folks over age 30. While millennials and Xillennials have largely grown accustomed to spicing up their in-person and online communications with cool acronyms like “LMAO,” “G2G” or “YOLO,” teens and twenty-somethings are now ushering out the … Read more
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid couldn’t hide his frustration Monday night despite his boast that his team is better than the Knicks after a heartbreaking Game 2 loss that puts the Knicks ahead 2-0 in the first-round NBA playoff series. And ex-76er and TNT analyst Charles Barkley was not thrilled with Embiid’s lack of leadership … Read more
Why do we say “elephant in the room”? Why do we say “dog and pony show”? And why do we say “sly as a fox”? These and many other popular expressions are part of everyday life in the English language — yet most of us don’t really know their interesting origin stories. Here’s a fun … Read more
Popular sayings in the English language often have multiple meanings — such as “a heart of gold” and “time is money.” Some expressions are also clever metaphors for deeper meanings. But where did they come from? Who started saying these popular phrases — and why are they so familiar today? Here are a few interesting expressions to explore. … Read more