Tchotchke trinket: a trinket or piece of bric-a-brac [Mid-20th century. < Yiddish tshatshke ] Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This word came up yesterday during the workday. Now, I know what a...

Today while listening to " Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk " by Angie Sage on CD with my son the word "erstwhile" caught my attention. It's not a word one comes across often, certainly not in American English (Angie Sage is British.) I thought it would...

I wonder if anyone else has this happen to them: Most morning, driving in to work and listening to NPR, I hear a word and thing "Where did that come from?" I can't wait to get into work so I can access the Oxford English Dictionary Online to find out...

Once in a while, I hit the jackpot – c. 725 CE! I was at the gym last Sunday. My Swiss friend and I were loitering by the supplement display and the "Whey Protein" caught our attention, mostly because my friend laughed about how she first thought she...

Finally! My kind of television show! http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/wordhunt/ I hope BBC America will pick it up!

As you may have heard, Microsoft decided to close the Aces Game Studio in January of this year. Although I will miss working on Microsoft Flight Simulator, I am looking forward to graduate school (Masters in Computational Linguistics) at the University...

Aileron One of the hinged flaps on the trailing edge of a wing of an aeroplane for maintaining or restoring its balance when flying. From the French. aileron, diminutive of aile wing. First appearance in English in1909. Oxford English Dictionary, Second...

The issue of translating "proper nouns" comes up a lot in coding software that will be localized into other languages. Developers, in my experience, like to hardcode anything and everything if possible. This is not just a US programming phenomenon – I...

"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear." Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

On June 4, 1784, Elisabeth Thible, a French opera singer, became the first female aeronaut when she ascended in a Mongolfier balloon. Am 4. Juni 1784, die französische Opernsängerin Elisabeth Thible war die erste Frau die mit einer Montgolfière aufstieg...

I was writing an email to a colleague this morning and I used the verb "jibe." I don’t believe I've ever actually written the word before in my life and I was compelled to look it up out of curiosity. I was using the word in the American English meaning...

English - flaps A hinged portion of an airplane's wing, generally on the trailing edge, that can be lowered during takeoff and landing to increase the wings' lift and drag. When partially extended, a flap adds lift by increasing the camber, or curvature...

It is very tempting to write a application that concatenates strings or audio to make a single phrase or sentence. It seems like it would be really helpful if you are squeezed for space or to speed things up. However, natural language is a lot more complicated...