Language

The name hippocampus comes from the Greek word for seahorse. It's a part of the brain involved in emotion and memory.

The Seahorse In Your Brain: Where Body Parts Got Their Names

5:37pm December 16, 2016

What are those dog ears doing on my heart? Ancient anatomists named body parts after things they resembled in real life. So you've got a rooster comb in your skull and a flute in your leg.

President-elect Donald Trump waves to supporters during a rally Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa.

Trump Supporters to Detractors: 'Pull Up Your Panties' And Stop Whining

11:58am December 10, 2016

by Sarah McCammon

Despite skepticism of Trump — and losing the popular vote — his supporters say it's time to move on and trust the president-elect to figure things out. They're willing to give him a very long leash.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg argues that the media's decision to bleep or otherwise block out a particular word can result in concealing information the public needs to know.

Politics & Government

Not Fit To Print? When Politicians Talk Dirty, Media Scramble To Sanitize

2:01pm October 25, 2016

by Geoff Nunberg

Donald Trump isn't the first politician to use coarse language, but linguist Geoff Nunberg says the 2005 Access Hollywood tape of him discussing women's genitalia wasn't like other live-mic incidents.

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Books

Our Language Has 'Interesting Little Wrinkles,' Linguist Says

5:40pm September 05, 2016

by NPR Staff

John McWhorter of Columbia University says the way we use words changes, like how "literally" can now mean "figuratively." That example, he says, is a contronym, a word with two opposite meanings.

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on Friday.

Donald Trump's Controversial Speech Often Walks The Line

2:09pm August 10, 2016

by Sarah McCammon

Trump has repeatedly made statements that push the boundaries of acceptable political discourse, but that are often open to interpretation.

Earlier studies have found that children who grow up in houses with a TV on many hours a day learn fewer words than children in households with less TV time.

Turning Down The Background Noise Could Help Toddlers Learn

3:47pm July 21, 2016

by Carolyn Beans

Being surrounded by noisy conversations, radio or TV can make it harder for toddlers to learn new words, researchers say. Quieter conversations didn't affect the learning process.

Donald Trump delivered a speech on April 27, 2016 in Washington, D.C. using a teleprompter, a "pivot" in style, after saying he wouldn't use one.

Politics & Government

Politics, Pundits And The Problem With The Word 'Pivot'

8:42am June 11, 2016

by Scott Simon

The campaign buzzword du jour seems to be "pivot," and NPR's Scott Simon is sick of it. He points out that it's more than tiresome — it can obscure the true meaning of a politician's message.

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Star Trek fans dress as Klingons during the Destination Star Trek event at ExCel on Oct. 3, 2014, in London.

Is Klingon A Living Language? That's For (Human) Courts To Decide

3:19pm May 09, 2016

by Michel Martin

Does Star Trek — and Klingon — belong to the fans or to the studios? The answer has big implications for more people than just Trekkies.

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MRI scans suggests words stimulate different regions of the brain depending on their meaning.

Scans Show 'Brain Dictionary' Groups Words By Meaning

8:32pm April 27, 2016

Brain maps constructed by MRI show that language meaning is distributed throughout the brain's outer layer. And it turns out that different people organize language in similar ways.

A trip to Iceland wouldn't be complete without a dip in the Blue Lagoon, a man-made geothermal pool on Reykjanes peninsula.

#NPRreads: 3 Stories To Soak Up This Weekend

1:36pm April 23, 2016

The premise of #NPRreads is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading and each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.