# word detective

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by mysticrain (Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.) on Wednesday, 05-Apr-2006 2:02:52

Hey guys. I couldn't sleep tonight, so I'm playing on the net. I did a google search on the origin of the term soapbox, as in get on a soapbox. I came across this really neat website www.word-detective.com. Basically, it's a ask and answer collumn. You can write ina question about the origin of a word or phrase, and they'll research it for you and return an answer. They having a mailing list for article updates. It's pretty cool.

## Post 2 by Blue Velvet (I've got the platinum golden silver bronze poster award.) on Wednesday, 05-Apr-2006 7:07:07

That does sound interesting. I read a book once on the origin of slangs and phrases. I find that sort of thing fascinating.

## Post 3 by motifated (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 29-Apr-2006 23:28:12

I teach assistive technology. Actually, there are several sites with this kind of information. I was working with one of my students, for whom english is a second language. He asked me what it meant to "go on a guilt trip?" Well, I started to explain it to him. We had Kurzweil 1000 version 10 on his computer. I used it as a chance to show him how to use the dictionary. To my surprise, they defined it. Ya never know.