According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 54 percent of adults, nearly 130 million people, aged 16 to 74 lack literacy proficiency, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

In modern English, myrrh survives almost entirely as a symbolic word. It appears in religious narratives, historical accounts ...

Our modern English word "Noel" is derived from the Middle English word nowel and means "a shout of joy or Christmas song." ...

We often hear fascinating stories about how things originated: the universe, the wheel, even pizza. But when it comes to the words we toss around every single day without a second thought, it’s wild ...

Some holiday words have more than one meaning, like "trim" the tree. And some meanings have more than one word, like "gift" ...

It can compliment, or dismiss. It sometimes conveys strong emotions, or no emotion at all. And that's "nice" -- a tidy, sturdy word that's remarkably adaptable. Hundreds of years ago, it meant someone ...

Origin Uncertain: Unravelling the Mysteries of Etymology. By Anatoly Liberman. Oxford University Press; 344 pages; $29.99 and £22.99 MANY WORDS are puzzles themselves. “Conundrum” confounds scholars; ...

Stay on top of what’s happening in the Bay Area with essential Bay Area news stories, sent to your inbox every weekday. The Bay Bay Area-raised host Ericka Cruz Guevarra brings you context and ...

The Greeks built on Babylonian astronomy to make their observations of eclipses, and the word “ekleipsis” appears as early as the fifth century B.C. in Thucydides’s history of the Peloponnesian War, ...

The study of word origins (that is, etymology) is every bit the serious academic discipline you might expect it to be — except when it's not. As it turns out, people have a propensity to make false ...

A new book exploring the origins of common food terms — from bialy to lima bean to bibimbap — is a fascinating history of how we eat and cook. By Kim Severson Used judiciously, the snappy tidbits of ...