Have you ever wondered where all the weird words in English come from? For example, when someone refers to the presence of small children as "hearing the pitter-patter of little feet" — where on earth ...

Heavy rain often sends everyone running indoors to stay dry—but centuries ago, there was an even more pressing reason to avoid the streets. “Back when public sanitation was practically nonexistent, a ...

Language is a curious thing. It's constantly changing, almost as if it’s alive. For every new word we create, an old word falls out of fashion and fades into obscurity. There are some words and ...

Otherwords is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio ...

We often hear fascinating stories about how things originated: the universe, the wheel, even pizza. But when it comes to the words we toss around every single day without a second thought, it’s wild ...

With thousands upon thousands of words in the English language, some are bound to have different meanings and uses. An idiom is defined as "an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to ...

(Stacker) - “blue states,” and “red tape.” These words populate headlines and newspaper articles regularly, with many writers taking their meaning for granted, but a look through history can reveal ...

The study of word origins (that is, etymology) is every bit the serious academic discipline you might expect it to be — except when it's not. As it turns out, people have a propensity to make false ...

The word “munificent” is adjective that can describe someone who is very generous. It can also describe something that is ...

The terms include "peanut gallery," "plantation shutters" and "open the kimono." In the midst of a cultural awakening on race, commonly used words and phrases and their origins are being reexamined ...