Like, What? The Power and History of a Popular Phrase

Twitter is particularly valuable: even the most casual of searchers can look for a word or phrase and form an impression of how people are using it. They might notice that a lot of people who used “smol” in 2018 also appeared to be fans of anime or cute animals, or that “bae” was used primarily by African Americans until around 2014, when it starte

Strikingly, before about 1950 there were approximately zero articles, books, essays, treatises, odes, classes, encyclopedia entries, or anything of the sort dealing explicitly with the subject of “creativity.”

What does diminishing language sound like in conversation? “I was just wondering,” “I thought maybe,” “Can I ask a stupid question?” and “I’m sorry, but…”

Talking exclusively in complete sentences sounds stilted in all but the most formal of prepared speeches. (Sentence fragments! How useful!) We use utterances in casual writing as well.

“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides." — Rita Mae Brown

If you’re bilingual or ever had to “code switch” based on your social context, you know Rita is right. This isn't just about swapping words; it's about inhabiting a completely different reality. This phenomenon, which linguists call the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or "

It is not insignificant that the English language is 70 percent nouns, while Potawatomi is 70 percent verbs.