Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, April 13, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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raffish
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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IntensifiersIntensifiers are adverbs or adverbials that modify adjectives and other adverbs to increase their strength, power, or intensity. What are some examples of intensifiers? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The DaguerreotypeThe daguerreotype, an early form of photograph, was invented by Louis Daguerre in the early 19th c. He collaborated with J. Nicéphore Niepce, who created the first permanent photograph, but completed the design alone following his partner's sudden death. A daguerreotype, produced on a silver-plated copper sheet, produces a mirror image photograph of the exposed scene. Daguerre's process made portrait photography possible for the first time. How did the French government describe the invention? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 George Frideric Handel's Oratorio Messiah Debuts (1742)Composed by Handel, the great master of baroque music, Messiah is one of the most popular choral works in the Western world. Its immense popularity has resulted in the erroneous conception of Handel as primarily a church composer. In truth, the contemplative, English-language oratorio stands apart from the rest of his 32 oratorios, which are dramatically conceived. How did it become tradition for audiences to stand during the performance of Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Alfred Mosher Butts (1899)In the 1930s, Butts, an unemployed architect, invented a game called Lexiko, in which players drew lettered tiles from a pool and then attempted to form words. After unsuccessful attempts to sell the game to board-game makers, Butts sold the rights to entrepreneur James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments and renamed the game Scrabble. More than 150 million sets have been sold in multiple languages since. How did Butts determine how many tiles of each letter should be included in the game? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Accursed be he that first invented war.Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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catch heat— To be the target of someone's anger. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Lazarovden (St. Lazarus's Day) (2019)In Bulgaria, St. Lazarus's Day (Lazarouvane or Lazarovden) is the great Slavic festival of youth and fertility. The day takes its name from a series of ritual games and songs studied in advance by young girls during Lent. Although there are many versions of the ritual, they all have a common focus, which is the "coming out" of girls who are ready to be married. Particular attention is paid to dress, which usually involves colorful traditional costumes and heavy jewelry. In former times, people believed that the more elaborate the rituals devoted to marriage, the better the chances for happiness. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: impliedsubaudition - The act of understanding something that is implied but not overtly expressed; the act of reading between the lines or otherwise understanding a message that is implicit. More... tacenda, tacit - Tacenda are things not to be mentioned or made public—things better left unsaid; tacit means "unspoken, silent" or "implied, inferred." More... | |