Can you guess what the word ‘tattoo’ means? It’s Tahitian and means ‘to mark something,’ most commonly a person’s skin. Today, tattooing is a modern form of scarification that’s a common practice in Western and Eastern cultures. Individuals mark their skins with words, images and other emblems important to them.

History tells us that tattooing has a wide range of applications and meanings depending on the culture, type of power structure, and rituals a community participates in. However, a common theme is that tattoos serve as a way of communicating identity or membership in a particular community.

A practice that started thousands of years ago

The art of tattooing is believed to have been around since 12,000 B.C. with scientists pinning its origins to Neolithic times.

The use of tattooing in ancient cultures was a fast and efficient way to signify status, wealth, wellness, and other cultural and personal information for the bearer. Many cultures believed that tattooing an animal, spirit, or any other deity on your body would transpose that power and capabilities to you as the person bearing it.

Tattoos around the world

In ancient Egypt tattoos were a practice believed to have healing properties. But that’s not all. It could also serve as a punishment for wrongdoers and as a form of signaling a person’s religion and status.

In India, henna tattoos are a popular form of non-permanent skin scarification that can be traced back to ancient practices and rituals.

Japan’s tattoo history stretches as far back as 10,000 B.C according to history records and discoveries. Used mostly for decorative and religious/spiritual reasons, Japan has a rich collection of tattooing practices which people communicate their likes, status, and spiritual aspirations.

Tattoos in the modern world

The first officially documented, professional tattoo artist was Marin Hildebrandt who lived in 19thstyle=”font-weight: 400;”> century Massachusetts. Today, the art of tattooing is a popular practice across the world with its main functions being to communicate identity, status, or membership in a community. Many young adults use tattooing for  purely decorative reasons or as a way of expressing allegiance to or affection for someone.

Ultimate Vocabulary guarantees to help you increase your vocabulary knowledge! Learn more words and apply them in your writings.

The funny thing about the English language is that it keeps you on your toes. Its pronunciation is unpredictable to put it mildly, and at times, some words seem to fight over a single definition, even when they denote the exact opposite concept. Welcome to the absurdity that is the English language.

A contronym is a word that has two contradictory meanings. For example, if the word ‘open’ were a contronym, it would both mean ‘to open’ and ‘to close.’ Sounds crazy? Well, it’s not. In fact, the English language has several words that are contronyms, or “auto-antonyms.”

Hysterical

If someone says that your jokes are hysterical they probably mean they’re very funny. But if something or someone is hysterical, bad news. They probably mean something is frightening or plain frantic and crazy.

Dust

If you dust the table, do you remove the dust from it or do you cover it with it? It ultimately depends on your goal. The same applies with strawberries. You might dust them with sugar or any other sweet substance, or dust them as a way of removing dirt and, well, dust.

Nervy

If you’re nervy you’re either very courageous or very volatile and likely to lack nerve. Here are some examples to make this difference clear:

“You’re nervy to show up after what you did!”

“He’s nervy whenever he has to talk in front of a large audience.”

Cleave

When you cleave onto something, you cling tight to it, or join it. As in:

“The homeless baby, frightened of the pedestrians, cleaved to his mother.”

But cleave also has the meaning of splitting up through cutting something in half or in more pieces. So for example, you can cleave open a piece of wood or meat.

Strike

When you strike something you hit it. But in baseball, a strike is a miss. So yes, in this world, on this planet, strike means both hit and miss.

Overlook

You can overlook a team of scientists or you can overlook your team’s mistake’s. The second one might be a problem, with the result of them doing their own thing and missing your deadlines. Overlook can mean either monitor/supervise or a failure to notice something.

To Sanction or Not?

If a government sanctions a law, they either approve it or boycott it. To sanction is to penalize or punish a person, organization, or even country as a way of deterring a behavior or action in the future. But a government can also approve, endorse or ‘OK’ a law or project if it’s a good one.

Off it goes – or is it On?

If the alarm goes off, it actually means that it is activated, triggering the alarm sound. So in this sense, ‘off’ means the alarm goes on.

Peruse

Perhaps the most confusing contronyms or auto-antonyms are verbs because the action they’re supposed to perform is contradicted.

Take ‘to peruse’ as an example. You can peruse an email as a way of reading very carefully what’s being said or you can peruse a magazine casually and without much focus or attention to detail, just skimming through it.

For more information on contronyms check this great list by The Daily Writing Tips.

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You don’t need an expensive tutor or a five-year plan in order to improve your vocabulary. All you need is the determination to learn just one word a day.

One word a day doesn’t sound like much, does it? If you’re wondering how this works, read on!

Read

Today more than ever, your access to quality online content is super easy, super instant. You can read on your tablet or your smartphone on the way to work, you can read a print book in the park, and you can read at home while taking a bath or listen to an audio book while you’re cooking.

In other words, there are no excuses here when it comes to finding the time to read. So grab a book (or download one, whichever is your thing) and delve right into a story.

Even if you read just a few pages, you will probably stumble upon a new word or phrase. Look it up and try to use it that day or the next day. This way you will be able to recall and use your new vocabulary again when the circumstances call for it.

Dictionaries are your new best friend

I’m not talking about the bulky dictionaries that seem to weigh as much as a car. I’m talking about an app you can download on your smartphone or tablet so that you have an offline dictionary at your disposal at any given time.

Whether at school, college, or work, the world’s knowledge will be literally at your fingertips. When you come across a word you don’t know, tap the app, learn what the word means and how to use it, and go back to your life. It doesn’t get easier than this!

Subscribe to a word a day service

To help you stick to your a word a day pledge, do the most sensible thing possible: subscribe to a service that provides exactly that. Most online dictionaries offer this feature, usually in the form of a daily email. Here are a few you should give a try:

Dictionary.com: Word of The Day

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Word of The Day

WordSmith.Org: Word A Day

Don’t wait any longer. Start improving your vocabulary today!

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Ever wonder why the months are named the way they are? What is it about the last month of the year that makes “December” an apt name for it? What about April and March – what are their stories?

We know for certain that for August through December, the months’ name correspond to their order of appearing in the year. September was the seventh month, October the eighth and so on, back when March was the first month of the year. However, April’s name has nothing to do to its position in the sequence.

April, the blossoming of Nature

The most prevalent theory as to how April got its name says that it goes back to the Latin word ‘aprilis’ and the verb ‘aperire,’ both of which denote an opening, to open, or blossom. This is a well-grounded hypothesis considering that April is the time when both animals and nature resume their activities after the long winter. Signaling this activity by naming the month after it seems like a sensible thing to do.

Another theory, however, says that ‘April’ got its name from the Greek goddess of Beauty and Love, Aphrodite. Again, this could be seen as an attempt to denote the beauty of this time of the year as the trees and flowers begin to blossom, showing off their radiant colors.

April is a month commonly mentioned in literary works, music and other forms of oral culture and arts. T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land opens with the line: “April is the cruellest month” and George Orwell’s 1984 novel opens with this strong image:

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks  were striking thirteen.”

April Proverbs and Sayings

Cultures around the world have proverbs about the month of April that help us better understand the significance and role it had to play in their daily lives.

“March Winds and April showers bring forth May flowers”

This well-known proverb perfectly illustrates how the weather in March and April ensures the abundance of May and early summer.

This proverb signals the anticipation of spring and all the images this conjures up of blossoming flowers and buzzing nature. In many countries and especially the UK and Ireland, April has heavy rain (or ‘April showers’) due to the jet stream.  The Spanish face the same phenomenon as illustrated by their own saying which is very similar: “En abril, aguas mil.” This proverb says that during the month of April, there’s a lot of rain, ‘millions of water.’

In previous centuries when people use to forecast weather based on the weather of particular days and months, April was among the months whose weather was under scrutiny. Such forecasts include:

– After a wet April, a dry June

– Fogs in April, floods in June

– Moist April, clear June.

At the same time, the French have a saying that counsels patience. The proverb says that April is not yet the time to don your summer outfits:

-En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil.

The French caution you not to put away your winter clothes yet as cold is still a fact.

Is there a special proverb or saying in your language about April? Let us know in the comments below!

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The English language is a fine example of a linguistic melting pot. It is a kaleidoscope of cultures, languages, and histories that came together to form one multicolored discourse. This coming together has contributed to making English the lingua franca of our times.

English has borrowed many words from countries across the world. You might be surprised to discover that words you use daily are not as “English” as they sound.

Old Norse words

Anger, birth, cake, drag, get, kid, leg, root, same, trust, take, wrong, window and wise all come from Old Norse, the language Vikings were speaking when they came and settled in England around 793 AD.

Old Norse brought into the English language several words related to war and violence. Slaughter, scathe and club, for instance, all came from the war-loving Vikings.

Words such as husband, sale, and law seem as English as they get but they are from Old Norse also.

In fact, Old Norse is a basic root of modern English. English would resemble German and Dutch today if it weren’t for the Norman invasion to the British Isles in 1066. Which brings us to the next group of words borrowed from the French.

Oh mon Dieu! The French are coming!

About 50 percent of English words are from French or Latin. Words we’re using everyday like bacon, button, comfort, crime, marriage, salary, search, uncle, and tax are all French in origin.

Your ‘honor’ is French and so is your ‘joy.’

In your French ‘leisure’ time when you ‘question’ the ‘reason’ ‘bacon’ is so darn good, you’re using concepts and words that are French!

Latin. Not as dead a language as we think

While many French words are themselves derived from Latin, the English language has a rather distinct set of culture-based borrowed words. This rather long list includes words such as crisis, dictator, diploma, doctor, echo, ego, exterior, investigate, labor, senior, junior, prospect, and virus.

Greek loan words in the English language

The Greek language has offered words that allow us to speak about and understand government, conceptual/philosophical topics, and subjects related to drama and medicine.

Words like biography, anatomy, architecture, grammar, and hygiene are words the English have borrowed from Greek origins.

English words with Italian roots

Italy and its appealing culture have given the English a piece of that culture with words such as balcony, carpet, dilettante, magazine, qnd piano.The arts of music, food and culture in general have pushed many Italian words in the English dictionary and everyday discourse.

Words borrowed from Japanese, German, Chinese, Arabic and Russian

Apart from the big influencers, there are other language and cultures that contributed words to make the English language even more diverse and multicultural.

For example, admiral, henna, jar, coffee and lemon are commonly used English words with Arabic origins. The Germans have given us aspirin, glitz, and waltz while the Chinese have made English even more multicolored with Zen, typhoon, wok, and kumquat.

The Russian language has enriched the English language with kefir, cosmonaut and babushka. Words such as bonsai, haiku, kimono and akita are from Japanese.

Perhaps next time you say you can speak English, you could even go as far as argue that you speak a number of other languages — thanks to English!

While a teacher or tutor can offer you valuable support when learning spelling, you don’t actually need one to perfect your orthography skills. There are plenty of activities you can practice on your own and improve your spelling efficiency, starting now.

Let’s do a short quiz to start out with. In the comments section below, let us know which words are misspelled. If you’re a good speller, give us the correct spelling, too!

Occasional

Mispelled

Acknowledgement

Separate

Accesible

Dilemma

Convinience

What You Can Do To Improve Your Spelling Level Today

Online Spelling Games

Spelling doesn’t have to be a bore. You can improve your spelling with fun games and interesting activities. There are several free online games you can play that help you perfect your ability to spell even the hardest words.

Fun Brain offers its own spelling game online, in which you need to mark the misspelled word and provide the correct orthography for it.

Try the interactive YouTube spelling game or play the addictive (but oh so efficient) Spelling Bee game by Visual Thesaurus. In this multimedia game, you’ll first hear the word being pronounced, and then get a chance to spell it in the space provided.

Ultimate Spelling is another tool for practicing your spelling. Create your very own spelling list and focus on getting those words right. This is ideal for practicing words that you constantly misspell.

Once you create your spelling list you can play various activities with it, listen to the audio pronunciation and type the word out, figure out its spelling with one or two letters missing, or remove an incorrect extra letter to get the right spelling. Here’s an example list using the names of parts of the body.

Mobile Apps

If you’re into apps, you can try Brilliant Spelling, a free app that offers you activities such as an interactive tutor pronouncing words. It also provides customizability by letting you enter your own word list for practice.

A top rated spelling app that’s free to download is Skill Builder Spelling which is available for Android smartphones and tablets. Spelling Bee is another Android app with over 2,300 words available to learn.

Spoiler Alert! Watch out for the Ultimate Spelling™ OS / Android App SOON.

Ultimate Spelling™ Web Application

For a more rigorous and science-driven spelling practice try Ultimate Spelling™, a cloud-based software that offers you hundreds of lessons, games, and fun activities to improve your spelling.

Not only do you get expert-designed activities but you also benefit from progress tracking, goal setting, and social media sharing features.

What’s more, you can use it on any device that’s Internet enabled so you can practice whenever and wherever you go.

Get a Spelling Buddy

You can play Scramble to your heart’s content online, but nothing can improve your spelling more quickly than a spelling buddy.

Not only will you hold each other accountable for your progress and motivate each other to try harder, but you will also find it more enjoyable and interactive to practice together.

Whether it’s the old classic Scramble or coming up with fun mnemonics for difficult to spell words, a buddy will help you achieve your spelling skill goals faster and in a way that feels more like play rather than boring learning.

Remember that spelling doesn’t have to do with talent or some innate ability. It’s all a matter of practice. You can be a spelling bee champion if you put enough effort in to it!

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Happy Birthday, Texting! Though it’s most often associated with teenagers these days, texting itself can now be considered an adult. It has been 23 years since that very first text message went from one device to another, making the first ever sender and recipient world-famous for being the first people to engage in what eventually ended up being a daily and almost obsessive activity for millions of people.

Neil Papworth was the first person to use the short message service (SMS) function to send a text message. On December 3, 1992, Neil sent his colleague, Richard Jarvis, a holiday greeting. “Merry Christmas,” was the text that Jarvis received on his Orbitel 901.

The story goes that Neil Papworth never got a reply, or at least not immediately. Unlike today’s access-anywhere mobile phones, devices other than computers didn’t support texting at the time.

Who would’ve thought that two decades later, texting would be the most popular, affordable and fast non-verbal way to communicate? With yearly SMS traffic being projected to exceed the 9  trillion by next year, it’s evident that the SMS is the king of electronic, non-verbal communication in the 21st century.

Today millions of people enjoy this swift, discreet and efficient way to communicate locally and internationally. Although instant messaging and social media apps that provide alternate ways of sending messages are becoming increasingly popular, texting still holds tight to its position as the leader in electronic communications.

Texting has matured on another level as well. Today, this method of communication has many uses outside the personal realm. Brands are using texting to send offers, promotional coupons, and recommendations to their subscribers and loyal customers. The 160-character service seems more than enough for marketing and commercial purposes, especially when backed by the power of an international corporation.

Being available across platforms makes texting a prevalent mode of communication despite the new and attractively different apps that everyone seems to be using. Though each new app gets its followers, they find it hard to completely overshadow texting. It’s a mature, robust communication tool that shaped entire generations and has become part and parcel of cultures that traverses age, race, culture, and socioeconomic status.

Many people rushed to claim that texting was dead, after seeing the rapid growth of apps like WhatsApp. But the truth is that (for the time being at least) texting is a more accessible and global method. Anyone can receive a text message from you, but not everyone has a smartphone, let alone the specific app you are using. There are signs that mobile applications will possibly replace texting in the following years, but for now the simple SMS is here to stay.

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Do you ever wonder what makes a word … word-y? What are the criteria for a word to become an officially recognized part of a language?

There are many people who argue about where that tipping point is. Whether words like “slacktivism,” “bae,” and “feels” are proper words or not is still under debate. So to jump into the conversation, let’s look into how a word becomes a word.

What’s In A Word

For words to gain real-word status, a lot of people have to use them. If “selfie” and “vape” weren’t being used by a growing number of people then they would never acquire proper word status. In fact, “vape” was so extensively used that Oxford Dictionary named it the Word of the Year for 2014.

The Oxford Dictionary explains why “vape” was chosen:

“ You are thirty times more likely to come across the word vape than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year.”

Technology Leads the Way

So usage and popularity are two main factors that affect a word’s word status eligibility. Culture is the third.

Large scale events, new technologies, and advancements in science and other industries also give way to the creation and adoption of new words.

If researchers discover a new gene, a new correlation between atoms, or a new planetary system, words need to be created or borrowed from other languages to describe that concept.

Looking at word list from past years, it instantly becomes obvious how prevalent technology-related words are. And because technology lends itself to fast – almost viral – adoption, it should come as no surprise that in 2014 the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary list was dominated by techie words:

– Big Data

– Social Networking

– Tweep

– Hashtag

– Gamification

Nothing’s Permanent, Not Even Word Status

Rebekah Otto, Director of Content at Dictionary.com, says in an interview with Mental Floss that there’s a very thin line between slang and informal language. She poses this question to readers:

“What’s the line that delineates a phrase like “brogrammer” between being slang and an official word?”

Words are living organisms that are influenced by our culture and defined by human behavior, global trends, and technological innovation.

This can be easily observed by how fast a word with merely slang status – that is, a very informal word, used by a minority and not used in written language – gets informal word status or even proper word status.

For a word to enter the English dictionary, many happenstances have to collide. Cultural acceptance and adoption, usage, and online and offline media propagation need to be in place for a word to enter global consciousness and discourse.

But even if a word never gains Oxford Dictionary word status, it is still a proper word, in the minds and conversations of people that use it.  

Doctors use words that laypeople will probably never have to speak in their lives. Teens have their own slang words to communicate and affiliate with certain groups and identities. Professions of all kinds have their own obscure (to the uninitiated) words.

It could be said that a word becomes a word when it is spoken or used enough for it to make sense as a concept reference. Whether it is an officially accepted word or not, the status of a word should only worry you in circumstances when you need to use that word in formal writing or other contexts that require a certain level of formality.

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