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 ...

Apples grow on trees, and the government prints money. And words — words come from, well, other words. For example, the Lilliputians of Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” lent their name to a ...

If you are word-curious, you can use this book to figure out what a micromere is or what pododynia means. If you are a student of medicine or biology, you can use it as a shortcut to mastering 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 ...

These old English words have been around since before people started writing history. They remind us where our language came from and show how words can last through time while the world keeps ...

With students gone for the day, sixth grade teachers Joy Ford and Ryan Rusk sat in a classroom discussing the Latin root temp. After determining that “contemporary” and “temporary” share the root, ...

Next week, you can “Mosey Down Main Street” in Lafayette, Ind., during an event featuring outdoor games, music and food. It’s part of the city’s effort to promote its downtown businesses, according to ...