While teaching English to communist party officials in post-war Laos, Kathryn Kefauver Goldberg reflects on silence and the legacy of trauma.
language
Posted inBlog Post
How Do Words Get Added to the Dictionary?
Four times a year, lexicographers update and add words to the OED. Katherine Connor Martin helps decide what makes the cut.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense
Literary critics and cognitive scientists are finding common ground through the study of Shakespeare’s revolutionary use of language.
Posted inCurrent Events, Story
The Elements of Bureaucratic Style
The bureaucratic voice presents governments and corporations as placid, apologetic, and unmovable. It also makes their victims as active as possible.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Falling in Love with Words: The Secret Life of a Lexicographer
In an excerpt from her new book, Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper describes how she fell in love with words and offers a peek into the complex process of making dictionaries.
Posted inBooks, First Chapters, Nonfiction, Story
Falling in Love with Words: The Secret Life of a Lexicographer
Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper describes how she fell in love with words and offers a peek into the complex process of making dictionaries.
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Fuck’-ing Around
The history of swearing is more than just an evolution of social mores — it’s also a politically charged narrative at the “intersection of anger and gaiety.”
Posted inNonfiction
Our Favorite Words Of 2016
From akasha to kompromat, a guide to the words we learned in 2016.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How to Talk about the Weather Like a Newfoundlander
In Canada’s most easterly province, volatile weather conditions and cultural isolation produced a fascinating vocabulary to describe the natural world.
Posted inNonfiction, Unapologetic Women
The Rise of ‘Mama’
“Like most cultural shifts in language, the rise of white, upper-middle class women who call themselves ‘mama’ seemed to happen slowly, and then all at once.” Elissa Strauss explores how the use of “mama” helped rebrand motherhood for the modern mother.