Daily Content Archive

(as of Wednesday, August 29, 2018)
Word of the Day

boorish

Definition:(adjective) Ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance.
Synonyms:loutish, neanderthal, oafish, swinish
Usage: He was boorish and insensitive, and he made her cry far too often, but she loved him regardless.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Common Prepositional Errors

Some common errors that arise when trying to determine the appropriate preposition to use with a particular kind of verb. How are prepositions used with transitive verbs? More...
Article of the Day

Sigiriya

Towering above the surrounding plains, Sigiriya is an ancient Sri Lankan rock fortress noted for its unique frescoes and landscaped gardens. Likely built in the fifth century, the site includes the remains of an upper palace on the flat top of the rock, a middle terrace featuring a polished porcelain "mirror wall," a lower palace, and a surrounding moat system. An important example of urban planning in the first millennium, the fortress contains sophisticated engineering features, such as what? More...
This Day in History

Battle of Mohács Begins (1526)

In 1526, King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia led a poorly prepared army against a vastly superior Turkish force led by Sultan Suleiman I with disastrous results. About 25,000 of the king's soldiers were killed in the battle, and the rest were taken captive and massacred. Louis himself died during the retreat after being thrown from his horse. The defeat resulted in more than 150 years of Ottoman domination in Hungary. What modern Hungarian expression of bad luck references the battle? More...
Today's Birthday

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809)

The father of the US Supreme Court justice of the same name, Holmes was an American physician, poet, and humorist. After beginning his medical career as a general practitioner, he shifted to the academic field and became dean of the Harvard medical school. However, he is perhaps best known for the poem that won him national acclaim—"Old Ironsides," a protest against the scrapping of the USS Constitution, which helped save the ship. What common medical term was coined by Holmes? More...
Quotation of the Day
I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Idiom of the Day

be on (one's) conscience

To be a persistent cause or source of guilt, such as an act of wrongdoing. More...
Today's Holiday

Canadian National Exhibition (2023)

The first Canadian National Exhibition was held in 1879 in Toronto. The fair moved briefly to Ottawa, but it returned to Toronto and was called the Toronto Industrial Exhibition until 1921, when the name was changed to reflect its nationwide appeal. Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, about 10 minutes from downtown Toronto, the fairgrounds occupy 350 acres of lawns, gardens, pavilions, and Victorian-style buildings. Events include an air show, a horse show, celebrity appearances, and much more. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: knight

esquire - At its root, it means "shield bearer (in service to a knight)," from Latin scutarius. More...

forget-me-nots - May have gotten their name from the last words of a knight who drowned while trying to pick these flowers by a riverside. More...

heart on one's sleeve - Comes from chivalry, when a knight wore a scarf or other item from his lady tied to his sleeve. More...

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