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Wordly Wise | Jamming with some J-words

August 06, 2023 12:38 pm

Junta, jocund, jalopy: the provocation this week is the letter ‘J’. Let’s have some fun as we go on our weekly word hunting adventure.

Wordly Wise | Greek and Roman gods we often invoke to jazz up our language

July 30, 2023 12:35 pm

Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster ‘Oppenheimer’ is based on a book called ‘American Prometheus’ by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. Prometheus is a figure from Greek mythology, whose name is used in the English language to describe those who are daringly innovative.

Wordly Wise: Some Moon talk ahead of Chandrayaan 3’s lunar rendezvous

July 23, 2023 12:42 pm

This week, we discuss some words that are related to the moon and India’s mission to it – Chandrayaan 3. Apogee, mascon, mare: How many of these words do you know?

Wordly Wise | Clairvoyant, paranoid, mordant: Some words from Milan Kundera’s many obituaries

July 16, 2023 12:35 pm

Milan Kundera was a Czech-French novelist often considered the greatest 20th century writer not to win a Nobel Prize for his work. Best known for his novel, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, Kundera passed away earlier this week at the age of 94.

Elements of 24th Panzer Division advance towards Stalingrad in August 1942

A look at the German legacy of war lexicon

July 10, 2023 12:39 pm

A large number of war words in English, starting with the build-up of World War I, have German etymology. We look at some of them.

Zeitgeist, diesel, glitch – How you are using German words without even knowing

July 02, 2023 12:24 pm

German lends to the English language more words than you may realise. We take you through some, today.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in virtual hearing in New York

As a former POTUS goes on criminal trial, do not let these legal terms Trump you

June 25, 2023 11:48 am

With Donald Trump becoming the second American president to be taken custody by the authorities on criminal charges, here is an effort to decipher at least 10 legal terms that you are sure to encounter in the process.

Balkanization, Shanghaied, Bangalored… are you familiar with these toponyms?

June 17, 2023 4:41 pm

Toponyms are words derived from the name of a place or geographical location.

The buzz about words: You are a genius if you can spell some of these correctly

June 10, 2023 4:44 pm

After the conclusion of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee earlier this month, this week's Wordly Wise looks at the winning words from the past five editions.

From coal mines to English vocabulary: How a tiny bird became a lifeline for miners

June 04, 2023 1:02 pm

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, coal mines became deeper and deeper to meet the growing demand of fuel for industrial machinery. We explain how canaries became indispensable lifelines in the risky profession, eventually lending their name to a popular English idiom.