Language

In this installment of NPR's Word of the Week, we go to camp: from 16th-century military lodgings to the wilderness adventures of the 1880s designed to turn boys into "manly men."

It's often a derogatory term used to describe digital dinosaurs and technophobes. That wasn't always the case. NPR's Word of the Week looks back at the not so backwards-looking Luddites.

In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kharizmi helped solidify the concept of algorithms in mathematics and popularized algebra and the use of the zero.

There are theories that "love" in the tennis context has French, English or Dutch origins. But like many words, historians and language experts say it's hard to pin down the "right" answer.

Nutmeg commonly spices up a holiday season eggnog. It's also one of the most sought-after trick moves in soccer.

Its name is short — like its size — but the bee is one of Earth's most important and busy creatures.

Trump's nominee for the Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, has dominated headlines for weeks. For some, his surname is a reminder of a disappearing accent in South Midland America.

Today, most people know the word as a synonym for "destroy." But fewer realize its origins — or that it's come to mean something strikingly different than it once did.

Sometimes you just need to recombobulate. That word isn't in the dictionary, but it is on a beloved sign at Milwaukee's airport.

Therapists say we're overusing the word. Here's what it actually means — and what the Ingrid Bergman film that helped birth the word can teach us about it.