Swear words have a strange power over us. It starts when we are young, when they are deliciously taboo. Then, as we age, our dependence on swear words increases to the point where as an adult, we find ...

Discover the 25 bizarre and unexpected origins of today's slang! From bootleggers to 'stan,' explore the fascinating, hidden histories behind your everyday ...

For more than 150 years ago, the assumption that language is a singular event has hampered progress in explaining its evolution. Another obstacle was the failure to recognize that certain social ...

Linguist Gareth Roberts joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the etymologies of English words. How did the first languages first form? Was there once a single common language ...

Origin Uncertain: Unravelling the Mysteries of Etymology. By Anatoly Liberman. Oxford University Press; 344 pages; $29.99 and £22.99 MANY WORDS are puzzles themselves. “Conundrum” confounds scholars; ...

The Irish language, or Gaeilge, is one of Europe’s oldest living languages, tracing back more than 1,500 years. Part of the Celtic family, it developed alongside early Irish societies and was ...

An entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, defining a dictionary. Is there a word or phrase that you grew up with, something you felt was unique to your family? Maybe it was an expression your parents ...

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 ...

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 54 percent of adults, nearly 130 million people, aged 16 to 74 lack literacy proficiency, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.