After a period of warm, dry weather, when it finally rains there’s often a very distinctive smell in the air. It’s a pleasant smell. It’s a smell with its very own word: “petrichor.” The fragrance is a little bit like wet dirt, but it doesn’t occur every time it rains — the preceding dry spell Continue reading

When a dignitary of great fame but also unpredictable, unstable behavior visits a community unused to hosting such personages, local officials are often frightened and want to put forth the best possible appearance. You can see this sort of thing in North Korea, where you have to dress and act in specific ways when attending Continue reading

In 1897, if you wanted a job in the new industry of dispensing soft drinks at a “soda fountain”, you might study a book. The book was the Modern Guide for Soda Dispensers by W. A. Bonham, and it had all sorts of useful information.  One important part of the book was recipes. Here’s an Continue reading

It’s a somewhat puzzling state of affairs. There are quite a few characters and symbols we routinely use in addition to the regular alphabet; things like “@,” “#,” and even the common “*.” These commonly used symbols don’t have consistent names. But there are also many other characters and symbols that are only in use Continue reading

Latin is probably a more orderly language than English in many ways. But it’s not a model of efficiency, where only one rule applies in any given situation, and for any object or action there’s only one word. Take the act (or lack of act, I suppose), “not talking” or “being quiet.” In Latin there’s Continue reading

It’s Friday, which as it happens is a hebdomadal occurrence. Hebdomadal means anything that happens once every seven days. It’s a rather rare word, seeing as how most of the time when anyone wants to refer to something like that they simply say“weekly.” But the word did appear in a 2008 article in the Liverpool Continue reading

It’s a classic catch-22; there’s too much traffic in a particular area, so they build more roads. Then traffic increases because now there are more roads to use. This isn’t the only unexpected effect seen in connection with roads and car travel. For one thing, a traffic jam can happen for no apparent reason. You Continue reading

Alexander Graham Bell, who was awarded the first US patent for the telephone (fourteen years after Johann Reiss demonstrated a working telephone), thought that what you ought to say when beginning to speak into one was “ahoy!” This caught on in a small way for a while, but was quickly replaced with “hello,” a relatively Continue reading

When something happens, it “occurs”. When it happens again, it “recurs.” When a media program is broadcast the first time, it’s “run” or “aired.” When that’s repeated, it’s “rebroadcast,” “rerun,” or “reaired.” And when you surrender, you “capitulate.” Then when you “recapitulate,” you…sum up a topic? Wait, what’s going on there? “Capitulate” and “recapitulate” are Continue reading

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who lived in England in the late 1700s and early 1800s, is mostly remembered for his writing – long poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. He was eccentric, even for a member of the 18th century British intelligentsia. Among other things, he came up with his own Continue reading