Latest articles by Arika Okrent
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Bella, Cha Cha Man, Boogles, Fido, Mopsulus: Dog-naming trends through the ages
feature Forget naming your pup Max. Pets in the middle ages were named things like Zaphyro and Smylfeste
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Now you can Rickroll your friends (or enemies) in Klingon
feature "I am certainly considering a blood oath with you."
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15 weird sample dialogues from old English textbooks
feature These pieces of text are just... off
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7 ways we could tell that AP tweet was a fake
feature Take out your red pens, folks
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6 creative uses of sentence diagramming
feature The architecture of sentences can be quite beautiful
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Fascinating facts about 10 national anthems
feature Andorra is the only nation whose anthem has a first-person narrative. France's anthem is incredibly gory. And more!
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Haiti is teaching kids in the wrong language
The Explainer Most Haitians speak Haitian Creole. And yet, the country's traditional language of education is French — which less than 10 percent of Haitians speak fluently
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Why are 'rhyme' and 'rhythm' spelled like that?
feature Blame some showoffs in the 16th century
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15 words etymologically inspired by animals
feature Animals have always been important to the lives and livelihoods of humans, so it's no wonder they've left a mark on language
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17 words that describe themselves
feature Autological words are a self-centered, self-referential bunch
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The language Isaac Newton invented
feature Newton is credited with many, many scientific innovations. His linguistic creations, on the other hand, never really took off.
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The evolution of Facebook's pronoun problem
feature "Arika has changed their profile picture."
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11 inscriptions on old buildings that tell it like it is
feature "We shall die all"
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11 brand names with plural problems
feature We're looking at you, LEGO
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7 sentences that sound crazy but are still grammatical
feature Believe it or not, this sentence is grammatical: "The rat the cat the dog chased killed ate the malt."
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11 classy insults with classical Greek and Latin roots
feature Next time you punk a ructabunde, don't be so excerebrose
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12 onomatopoeias from around the world
feature Chik chik pok pok is the sound of a train in Korean. Ghrutu ghrutu is pig grunting in Georgian. And more!
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21 fancy medical terms for mundane problems
feature Overdid it last night? Just explain to your boss that you've got a bit of veisalgia.
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11 remnants of the Bastille you can still see today
feature A piece of the French prison's actual moat wall? You'll find it in the subway.
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12 animals whose names etymologically describe them
feature Armadillo means "little armored one," because of course it does
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The secret emotional lives of 5 punctuation marks
feature From the angry period to the dramatic asterisk...
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Dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells: Why do we call weights 'bells'?
feature It dates back to a fitness craze of the 1700s
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What most people get wrong about 'o' vs 'oh'
feature O reader, we're here to help!
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Explained: English's 3 different prefixes for 'half'
feature Semi, hemi, demi
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