It's not just the quintessential corporate jargon word. "Synergy" goes back hundreds of years, with history in Christianity, ...

"Lesbian" is a demonym for the inhabitants of the Greek island of Lesbos, so why does it today describe female homosexuality?

Presidential elections always bring about new buzzwords. Donald Trump has sent “big league” (or perhaps “bigly”) and “sad” (with or without exclamation point) to the fore, and he gets partial credit ...

A lot of books and blogs on etymology target odd words, many that you’ve never heard of, nor ever will again. These can be provocative. But for Word Odyssey, I prefer common, everyday words, words we ...

Word of the Day: Obfuscate stands out for its precision, relevance and critical force. It names a practice that shapes public ...

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4078401/4078402" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> NPR's ...