If you read our previous article on Leendert Hasenbosch’s life, you likely know that things went poorly after his “trial” onboard the Dutch East India Company’s ship. In fact, his punishment was so severe that he perished, stranded on an inhospitable island. So why would he confess in the first place? The reality is that people give false [...]
In our previous article on the history of the selfie, we traced humanity's journey from its first unconscious self-representation to the modern concept of self-portraiture. But the form of the selfie is not the only thing that has changed over that time. In fact, the word “selfie” itself is a very modern adjustment, and it reflects how language [...]
If you read an autobiography or a personal journal, you likely assume that you are reading the words as the author intended them. If the work has been translated, surely the content sticks as close as possible to the original, right? You may be surprised. Translation comes with risks, and one of the most salient is the threat [...]
Selfies are a nearly ubiquitous part of modern society. Even if you spend time in tiny coffee shops and less-used public streets, you likely won’t have to go far to find someone in that characteristic pose: arm stretched in front of them, smiling for the camera in their hand. Images of ourselves have always been a way [...]
The terms used for money (and counting in general) are shaped by deep cultural, historical, and value-based influences across many regions of the world. We discussed this further in this series’ first entry on the linguistic origins of money terms. But did you know that the language of money goes even deeper? Think of the difference between ten [...]
If you have ever paid for something from another country or used currency conversion at the airport, you probably saw some terms you’re not familiar with. Lakh. Man. Yì. You have a concept of how big a million is, but what about these other terms? They all describe a large quantity, but not in the same way. Even [...]
If you’re familiar with the story of Robin Hood, you’ve probably heard of Nottingham. Likewise, sports fans will recognize Manchester, home of the Manchester United Football Club. While these town names may seem unrelated, they share one thing in common: an English suffix that reveals something about the place’s history. In fact, many English town and city names [...]
You’ve probably heard the old trope that uncultured people don’t like watching films with subtitles. Or that only seasoned film aficionados can truly enjoy celebrated foreign films like the 1960s Italian classic La Dolce Vita or Japan’s 1954 epic Seven Samurai. It’s no secret that films made in American English culturally dominate the global film industry, with over [...]
A reflection on “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” by Paul Graham, nearly twenty years later We are living in the era of the greatest technological productivity in history. We have tools that generate in seconds what once took days, artificial intelligence assistants available around the clock, and instant access to virtually any information. And yet many people, myself included, [...]
Though you may not recognize the name, you’re almost certainly familiar with it. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is a historically established set of 26 words, each assigned to a letter of the English alphabet. The purpose of these words is to eliminate confusion when people are trying to spell words aloud over the telephone or radio. The alphabet [...]
