Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, April 25, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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exhilarate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Absolute PhrasesAn absolute phrase (also known as an absolute construction) is a grammatically independent group of words that serves to modify an entire sentence. Because an absolute phrase is not an integral part of the sentence, how is it always set apart? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Street FoodStreet food is found in cities around the world, and because it usually features intensely local culinary staples, the dishes served vary widely with geography. It is typically cheap and meant to be prepared and eaten quickly. Street food may be sold from carts, huts, trucks, or stands. It can be hot or cold and can consist of entire meals or little snacks. In northern China, scorpions on skewers are a popular street food. What other interesting street foods are found around the world? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Robinson Crusoe Is Published (1719)Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is a fictional autobiography of the eponymous English castaway marooned on a desert island for 28 years. During this time, Crusoe encounters cannibals, captives, and mutineers and endures endless hardships while preserving his human integrity. The first volume of Defoe's Crusoe story was published in 1719 and garnered immediate acclaim. It is considered by some critics to be the first true English novel. What is the book's full title? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Oliver Cromwell (1599)A controversial figure in English history, Cromwell was a leader of the parliamentary forces that battled the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, Cromwell became lord protector and virtual dictator of England and raised his country's status once more to that of a leading European power by means of a strict military administration and the enforcement of the Puritan moral code. What did the royalists do to his corpse when they returned to power in 1660? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. Nature, that great tragic dramatist, knits us together by bone and muscle, and divides us by the subtler web of our brains; blends yearning and repulsion; and ties us by our heart-strings to the beings that jar us at every movement.George Eliot (1819-1880) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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set (someone) by the ears— To cause (someone, generally a group of two or more people) to engage in a squabble, dispute, or altercation. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Portugal Liberation Day (2022)Liberation Day, or Liberty Day, is a public holiday commemorating the military coup on this day in 1974 that removed Marcello Caetano (1906-1980) from power, reflecting the opposition of many Portuguese to their government's military policies and wars in Africa. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: insignificantpiff - Something insignificant. More... bee's knees - Used from 1797 for "something insignificant." More... floccinaucinihilipilification, floccipend - Floccinaucinihilipilification is estimating or categorizing something as worthless, and floccipend means "regard as insignificant" (from Latin flocci pendere, "hold at little value"). More... piteous, pitiable, pitiful - Piteous is generally not used when speaking of people, pitiable means "able to be pitied," and pitiful most often means "insignificant; below contempt." More... | |