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Every four years, during the World Cup, America imports some Britishisms. An “argy-bargy” is a verbal scuffle. “Afters” is a fight that turns physical; “handbags” are minor “afters.” Even the word “soccer” comes from the English—by way of university slang for “association football” that became “assoc,” then “assocer,” then, finally, “soccer.” But a more controversial linguistic move has been the U.S.’s adoption of the British “are”—the tendency to pluralize, as in, “England ‘are’ going to blow it.” “Is the Britishification of our soccer grammar a token of graciousness and respect,” Zach Helfand asks, “or is it the wheedling sycophancy of perpetual losers?” Read his interrogation of soccer lingo’s British flair:https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ZVA9QA

The ampersand (&) really did originate as a ligature of the Latin word “et”, which means “and.”

In Roman cursive writing, scribes often wrote e + t together quickly. Over time, the two letters merged into a single flowing symbol. Through centuries of handwriting styles and typography, that merged form gradually evolved into what we now recognize as &.

The word “ampersand” itself comes from the phrase “and per se and.”

In the old English alphabet, & used to be recited at the end: X, Y, Z, and per se and. Over time, “and per se and” slurred into ampersand.

Spot the differences. Useful list for .

Wikipedia publishes list of AI writing tells Having trouble identifying AI writing? Wikipedia has you covered with a handy list of common tells LLMs will inject into their output.