Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Linguist Gareth Roberts joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the etymologies of English words. How did the ...

The word "deadline" has been used a lot in reference to tariffs. It got us thinking: what is the origin of the word? NPR's Scott Simon talks with Benjamin Dreyer, author of "Dreyer's English." The ...

They're known as man's best friends, fur babies, pooches. But the most widely used word for these beloved animals — "dog" — is also a great linguistic mystery. "The most everyday, commonplace words ...

For more than 150 years ago, the assumption that language is a singular event has hampered progress in explaining its evolution. Another obstacle was the failure to recognize that certain social ...