A new book explores the fascinating medieval history of a word whose current meaning has little to do with skill or labor. So if “craft” is guaranteed to start a fight, what is “craeft,” exactly? To ...

Words matter. Their meanings matter. If words have no meaning, then the ideas we construct from those words have no meaning, either. This is why Webster’s Dictionary records the definitions and uses ...

If you look up “microaggression” or “sheeple” or “safe space” on the website of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the entries won’t have a byline—but their author is Stefan Fatsis. A longtime journalist ...

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 ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...