They're known as man's best friends, fur babies, pooches. But the most widely used word for these beloved animals — "dog" — is also a great linguistic mystery. "The most everyday, commonplace words ...

Scientific terminology arranged in dictionary form with a full page discussion of the history, root, and meaning of each word.

Think about a word that looks like its meaning. For instance, the word bed kind of looks like a bed, with the vertical lines resembling the posts at either end. Loop looks very loopy. Some words are ...