After a whale dies, it may float up to the ocean’s surface to be scavenged by seabirds and sharks. Eventually, though, the carcass starts slowly sinking, and once the body reaches the ocean floor, it’s known as a whale fall. This is part...
Malamute, kayak, and parka are just some of the words that have found their way into English from the language of indigenous people in northern climes. • In the 1970s, some scientists argued that two quarks should be called truth and beauty. • The...
It’s cats and dogs, and a few other critters, too. Animals prowl around inside several English words, including sleuth, which was originally sleuth-hound, a synonym for bloodhound. Plus, the language we use with our pets and the ways they...
Natalia from Portland, Oregon, remembers that before taking off on a Sunday drive, her grandfather would announce to everyone We’re off in a cloud of whale dust! This is part of a complete episode.
Craig, a whale biologist in Alaska, wonders how many words have been adopted into English from such languages as Inuit, Yupik, Tlingit and Inupiaq. Indigenous languages in the far North have contributed mukluk, malamute, kayak, and parka. The word...
How would you like to be welcomed to married life by friends and neighbors descending on your home for a noisy celebration, tearing off the labels of all your canned foods and scattering cornflakes in your bed? That tradition has almost died out...