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Intercalary day is coming up
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Every four years, we add a day to our shortest month to make up for the fact that it really takes Earth a little more than 365 days to orbit the sun. The year is, of course, called leap year, with February 29 being leap day. But what, exactly, is leaping? It would be more accurate to call February 29 “intercalary day,” but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. The name is likely inspired by the effect of leap day on the months that follow: It means that dates on the calendar leap ahead two days of the week instead of one. So if your birthday is March 1 or later and was on a Friday last year, it will be on a Sunday instead of a Saturday this year. Maybe it should be called “skip day” instead? 🤔 Whether or not the names “leap day” and “leap year” resonate with you, they shouldn't be capitalized. What are you doing with your extra day this year? Hit reply and let us know. ❤ Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
We don't have a handy "principal is your pal"-style trick this week to help you remember the difference between the homophones tenant and tenet, but it looks like most of you don't need the help. Nearly 80% of last week's quiz participants got it right. It's a fun little parallel that both "principle" and "tenet" mean "belief," while their homophones can both refer to people. ("Tenant," of course, is an occupant or dweller.) While "tenant" and "tenet" have different meanings now, each word's...
Maybe it's all the back-to-school activity, or maybe you learned the "principal is your pal" trick back in elementary school, but either way, you didn't seem to need much help with last week's quiz. The vast majority of you knew that the principal would announce a new cellphone policy on the first day of school: Would it have been as easy to fill in this blank, though? Their _____ concern is getting all the children there safely. While principle is only a noun, principal is a noun and an...
Most of you didn't fall for it in last week's quiz, but you might say "infamous" is infamous for being misused. Or it might just be famous. Either way, we were impressed with last week's quiz results, with more than 63% of you answering correctly: So if the words famous and infamous aren't interchangeable, what's the difference? "Famous" simply means widely known, while "infamous" means being known for something bad (aka, famous with a bad rap). However, a lot of people seem to use "infamous"...