Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A group of girls laugh together at school. The word “girl” evokes the thought of a female child, while “boy” conjures the thought ...

For many architects writing is an integral part of the design process, one that clarifies or pushes ideas into places sketches can't always reach. But for many, the origins of the words we use to ...

A new book exploring the origins of common food terms — from bialy to lima bean to bibimbap — is a fascinating history of how we eat and cook. By Kim Severson Used judiciously, the snappy tidbits of ...

Where does the word “mother” come from? What does it mean? If, for some reason, you find yourself asking these questions, read on (and, as an aside, you might need to seek some professional help). For ...

Etymology is the study of the origins of words and how their usage has changed over time. It's every bit the serious academic discipline you might expect it to be — except when it's not. As it turns ...

I’ve never been very interested in etymology. I know that makes me a bad little language columnist. But the truth is, word histories all start to sound the same after a while. Such-and-such word came ...

This story originally appeared on Mental Floss. Every two years we get to marvel at them — no, not the superhuman feats of strength and skill from the greatest athletes in the world, but the weird and ...

From The Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. LV,- 1924. siris_sil_705433 ...