TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Bewilder - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
The history of the word bewilder is more straightforward than you might think. Roots can be traced back to the Old English words wilde (undomesticated) and deor (untamed animals), eventually combined into the word wilderness. Jessica...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's the definition of comedy? Banana. - Addison Anderson
What makes us giggle and guffaw? The inability to define comedy is its very appeal; it is defined by its defiance of definition. Addison Anderson riffs on the philosophy of Henri Bergson and Aristotle to elucidate how a definition draws...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: When to use apostrophes - Laura McClure
It's possessive. It's often followed by S's. And it's sometimes tricky when it comes to its usage. It's the apostrophe. Laura McClure gives a refresher on when to use apostrophes in writing.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Mysteries of vernacular: Earwig - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
An earwig is neither an ear nor a wig; it is an insect. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how folklore gave this bug its name, combining entomology with etymology.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Lady - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Why do we call women ladies? Well, etymologically-speaking, the word comes from the Old English words for hlaf (bread) and daege (maid), which, combined, mean the female head of the household and eventually indicated high social...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Fizzle - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
From a stinky and crude inception, the word fizzle's history is nothing to poo poo at. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel track the road from flatulence to its modern meaning of a failure or weak ending.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Ukulele - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
When 19th century Portuguese travelers landed in Hawaii with a small four-stringed guitar, a member of the king's court, nicknamed Jumping Flea, or ukulele in Hawaiian, took to the instrument. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Yankee - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Is it a doodle dandy? A baseball team? The origins of the word yankee are unclear, though its usage in America as a pejorative is well-documented. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel track the varying levels of contempt that the word yankee...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Mysteries of vernacular: Quarantine - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Stemming from the days of bubonic plague in Medieval Europe, quarantines were originally used to prevent potentially plague-infested ships from disembarking at a port city. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the length of the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The true story of 'true' - Gina Cooke
The older the word, the longer (and more fascinating) the story. With roots in Old English, 'true' shares etymological ancestors with words like betroth and truce...but also with the word tree. In fact, trees have been metaphors for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Do animals have language? - Michele Bishop
All animals communicate. But do they have language? Michele Bishop details the four specific qualities we associate with language and investigates whether or not certain animals utilize some or all of those qualities to communicate.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Where did English come from? - Claire Bowern
When we talk about 'English', we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? Claire Bowern traces the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Alex Gendler: How languages evolve
Over the course of human history thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number. How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The race to decode a mysterious language | Susan Lupack
In the early 1900s, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovered nearly 3,000 tablets inscribed with strange symbols. He thought the script, dubbed Linear B, represented the Minoan language, while others came up with their own theories. Was...
TED-Ed
Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak? | Lorenzo García-Amaya
For as long as we've had language, some people have tried to control it. And some of the most frequent targets of this communication regulation are the ums, ers, and likes that pepper our conversations. These linguistic fillers occur...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do our brains process speech? | Gareth Gaskell
The average 20-year-old knows between 27,000 and 52,000 different words. Spoken out loud, most of these words last less than a second. With every word, the brain has a quick decision to make: which of those thousands of options matches...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: A poetic experiment: Walt Whitman, interpreted by three animators - Justin Moore
Take a journey through Walt Whitman's poem 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' with the help of three animators who each used a different animation style to bring this beautiful poem to life.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Evolution's great mystery: Language | Michael Corballis
What we call language is something more specific than communication. Language is about sharing what's in our minds: stories, opinions, questions, the past or future, imagined times or places, ideas. It is fundamentally open-ended, and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How interpreters juggle two languages at once - Ewandro Magalhaes
Language is complex, and when abstract or nuanced concepts get lost in translation, the consequences may be catastrophic. Given the complexities of language and cultural exchange, how do these epic miscommunications not happen all the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Did Shakespeare write his plays? - Natalya St. Clair and Aaron Williams
Some people question whether Shakespeare really wrote the works that bear his name _ or whether he even existed at all. Could it be true that the greatest writer in the English language was as fictional as his plays? Natalya St. Clair...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What do all languages have in common? | Cameron Morin
Language is endlessly variable. Each of us can come up with an infinite number of sentences in our native language, and we're able to do so from an early age— almost as soon as we start to communicate in sentences. How is this possible?...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude
It can be hard sometimes, when speaking, to remember all of the grammatical rules that guide us when we're writing. When is it right to say the dog and mec and when should it be the dog and I? Does it even matter? Andreea S. Calude dives...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Buffalo buffalo buffalo: One-word sentences and how they work - Emma Bryce
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is a grammatically correct sentence. How? Emma Bryce explains how this and other one-word sentences illustrate some lexical ambiguities that can turn ordinary words and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to use a semicolon - Emma Bryce
It may seem like the semicolon is struggling with an identity crisis. It looks like a comma crossed with a period. Maybe that's why we toss these punctuation marks around like grammatical confetti; we're confused about how to use them...