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Graphic of the word "negrophile" spelled out three times

How the Right Retired “Negrophile”—and Substituted “Woke”

Favorite slur too racist? Replace it.
by Anthony Conwright via Mother Jones on August 29, 2023
Franz Kafka

How Franz Kafka Achieved Cult Status in Cold War America

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”
by Brian K. Goodman via Literary Hub on July 5, 2023
A bowl of old-fashioned chowder with a spoon on the side

Chowder Once Had No Milk, No Potatoes—and No Clams

The earliest-known version of the dish was a winey, briny, bready casserole.
by Anne Ewbank via Atlas Obscura on May 16, 2023
Illustration of the word Facism, divided by various speach bubbles.

Does American Fascism Exist?

For nearly a century, Americans have been throwing the term around—without agreeing what that means.
by Daniel Bessner via The New Republic on March 6, 2023
Ancient language symbols or hieroglyphics

Collecting for Salvation: American Antiquarianism and the Natural History of the East

The outlines of “salvation antiquarianism”—with the emphasis on “saving”—appears particularly clearly in the AAS’s inaugural 1813 address.
by Christen Mucher via Commonplace on October 26, 2022
Sesationalized painting of Native Americans about to scalp a white woman. The Murder of Jane McCrae by John Vanderlyn, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

“White People,” Victimhood, and the Birth of the United States

White racial victimhood was a primary source of power for settlers who served as shock troops for the nation.
by Gregory Rodriguez via Contra Mundum on June 9, 2022
Watercolor painting of enslaved people walking barefoot on a forced march, with white men on horseback at the front and back of the line.

Reparative Semantics: On Slavery and the Language of History

Scholarly accounts of slavery have been changing, but these correctives sometimes say more about historians than the historical subjects they're writing about.
by Nicholas T. Rinehart via Commonplace on January 4, 2022
Yams under concrete with the leaves growing out of a crack in the sidewalk

The Deep and Twisted Roots of the American Yam

The American yam is not the food it says it is. How that came to be is a story of robbery, reinvention, and identity.
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on November 24, 2021
A police officer standing over a victim of the Sharpeville Massacre, South Africa, March 21, 1960

The Etymology of Terror

For more than 150 years after it was coined, “terrorism” meant violence inflicted by the state on its people. How did the word come to mean the reverse?
by Matt Seaton via New York Review of Books on November 17, 2021
Glossographia title page

Why is the English Spelling System so Weird and Inconsistent?

Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology.
by Arika Okrent via Aeon on July 26, 2021
box of matches with faces drawn on the match sticks

Burnout: Modern Affliction or Human Condition?

As a diagnosis, it’s too vague to be helpful—but its rise tells us a lot about the way we work.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 17, 2021
Purple and yellow illustration of Lower Manhattan skyline, with letters of "Manahata" as buildings.

How New York Was Named

For centuries, settlers pushed Natives off the land. But they continued to use indigenous language to name, describe, and anoint the world around them.
by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro via The New Yorker on April 13, 2021
A television news reporter in a segment from the 1990s on juvenile crime

Superpredator

The media myth that demonized a generation of Black youth.
by Carroll Bogert, Lynnell Hancock via The Marshall Project on November 20, 2020

The Evolution of 'Racism'

A look at how the word, a surprisingly recent addition to the English lexicon, made its way into the dictionary.
by Ben Zimmer via The Atlantic on September 4, 2020

The Trouble with Triscuits

Though the "electricity biscuit" thesis is plausible, killjoy historians need more evidence.
by Charles Louis Richter via Contingent on March 31, 2020
Marchers carry a banner that reads "Lesbian & Gay Rights - Human Rights"

The History of 'Coming Out,' from Secret Gay Code to Popular Political Protest

In the 1950s, 'coming out' meant quietly acknowledging one's sexual orientation. Today, the term is used by a broad array of social movements.
by Abigail C. Saguy via The Conversation on February 10, 2020
Elizabeth Pryor

Why It's So Hard to Talk about the N-word

A professor explains the trauma of encountering "an idea disguised as a word."
by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor via TED on December 1, 2019
Juvenile in handcuffs
partner

Combating the Myth of the Superpredator

In the 1990s, a handful of researchers inspired panic with a dire but flawed prediction: the imminent arrival of a new breed of “superpredators.”
via Retro Report on October 30, 2019

The Surprising Origins of the Phrase 'You Guys'

When did people start using the phrase to refer to a group of two or more?
by Allan Metcalf via TIME on September 30, 2019
Painting of people examining a globe that depicts California as an island.

California, an Island?

Meet cartography's most persistent mistake.
by Frank Jacobs via Big Think on July 7, 2019

Noah Webster’s Civil War of Words Over American English

What would an American dictionary meen for the men and wimmen of America?
by Peter Martin via Aeon on June 24, 2019

The Innovation Cult

The function of the "innovation" buzzword is to sustain the myth that business genius creates society’s wealth.
by John Patrick Leary via Jacobin on April 16, 2019

The “Miscegenation” Troll

The term “miscegenation” was coined in an 1864 pamphlet by an anonymous author. It turned out to be an anti-abolition hoax.
by Mark Sussman via JSTOR Daily on February 20, 2019

Reconsidering the Jewish American Princess

How the JAP became America’s most complex Jewish stereotype.
by Jamie Lauren Keiles via Vox on December 5, 2018
Charles Lindbergh addresses the America First Committee in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1941.

Loaded Phrases

The long, entwined history of America First and the American dream.
by Kevin M. Kruse via The Nation on November 21, 2018

Why is Everyone Suddenly Saying 'Y'all'?

Or better put, why is it something so many outside of the South have recently adopted?
by Bill Black via MEL on November 12, 2018

How "America First" Ruined the "American Dream"

Author Sarah Churchwell on the entangled history of America’s most loaded phrases.
by Sarah Churchwell, Sean Illing via Vox on October 22, 2018

Why We Say "OK"

How a cheesy joke from the 1830s became one of the most widely spoken words in the world.
by Coleman Lowndes via Vox on September 12, 2018
Salem witch trials

An Embarrassment of Witches

What's the real history behind Trump's 'witch hunt' tweets?
by Mary Beth Norton via Perspectives on History on April 10, 2018

The Origins of the 'Globalist' Slur

The anti-Semitic seeds of its use were firmly planted 75 years ago.
by Ben Zimmer via The Atlantic on March 14, 2018
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