English is a rich melting pot of words borrowed and adapted from languages across the globe. Many long, elegant, or even tongue-twisting English words have surprising backstories that trace back to ...

Like a wandering sailor, the Latin root “porto” has a girl in every . .. well, port. “Porto” means “carry,” and this roamin’ Roman root has sailed into scores of English words, serving us both the ...

Because a prude is prudent when it comes to sexual matters, you might take it for granted that “prude” and “prudent” have the same origins. But making that assumption “wouldn’t be prudent,” as the ...

You have seen the cartoons. A gaunt man in a white robe with a long white beard carries a sign that reads, “repent.” A smarty-pants caption accompanies the cartoon. For most people, repentance means ...

Ever used the word highfalutin'? Or abracadabra? Or bragged about your brand new duds? If you have, you've been speaking Irish, says Daniel Cassidy, co-director of the Irish Studies Program at New ...

If you look too closely, some English vocabulary just ceases to be logical. You use fanfare all your life, for instance, and then you stop and think: Wait—what does fan have to do with fare? Is that ...

Letter Character:Learning the rules for adding suffixes can help you become better spellers. So here’s a quick recap of the ‘Rules for adding the suffixes-ment and –ly’ VO: Both –ment and -ly are ...

Letter Character: Learning the rules for adding suffixes can help you become better spellers. The good news is that the rules we use for adding the suffix –ation mostly work for the vowel suffix –ous ...