Posts

What is a smoking gun? Where does the phrase come from?

A smoking gun is piece of incontrovertible incriminating evidence. 

Which language has the most words?

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Which languages do Americans speak at home?

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Top 10 words with the most entries in the Oxford English Dictionary?

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Here are the words with the most separate entries in the OED:

Top 10 words with most OED entries? What do they have in common?

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Most popular word in English?

It has only two letters but is arguably 'America's greatest word'.  

Most common spelling mistakes in English?

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These are the five most common spelling errors in English:

What is Asperger's Syndrome? What is an ASD?

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The terminology surrounding this area is confusing, partly for historical reasons.

Where does the word shampoo come from?

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Why did James Joyce write in English?

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For two centuries English has been the majority language in Ireland.

What is FLOTUS? Who is the POTUS?

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There some dispute as to when FLOTUS entered the lexicon: 

Which actress has most influenced the English language?

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Quotation reference books lean towards Mae West but in terms of cultural influence there can only be one  choice.

What is the Hobson-Jobson dictionary?

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In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print.