Approximate Knowledge

The paradoxical quantity zero entered English in 1604 as a borrowing from multiple languages: French zéro (est’d 1485), Spanish zero (est’d 1512, now cero), and their shared source, Italian zero.

The premise was clear, tried, and true.

The mild pejorative yankee first appears in a 1765 American poem, in which it means “person from New England”.

The stove-in-a-can sterno has become a genericized brand name long since its 1915 debut.

Earlier this month, I read a more equivocal take about the golden age of a different medium entirely.

The level of competitiveness varsity was first applied to sports in 1891.

The enthralling quality mesmerizing is first attested in 1829, as well as its base form mesmerize.

Decipher an unknown ancient language through fragmentary inscriptions found on artifacts and monuments.

The grassland prairie is a 1761 borrowing from Modern French prairie, meaning “meadow”.

Wait, a pile of what?