One of my friends, who knows about my passion for words and the English language, sent me a gift subscription for the Wordsmith - A word a day newsletter about 5 years ago. It is one of the best gifts I have ever received and one that makes me think of my friend often !
The newsletter delivers what it promises. You are introduced to a new word every day for 5 days a week. There is a theme for every week and words related to the theme are sent in the newsletter. The meaning of the word, the etymology (or history of the word) and an example of its usage - from a current newspaper or magazine, form the body of the newsletter.
At the end of the newsletter, there is an interesting saying by some famous personality. And since it is only one word a day, you get to know a lot of new words. You may not necessarily remember all of them, but if you can remember at least 1 out of 100, you are still making good progress. The words are also available online on the website - http://wordsmith.org/
A weekly digest is sent every weekend. This has feedback from the readers of the newsletter, with many of them narrating interesting anecdotes about the words discussed in the past week. In the beginning of the digest, links to some interesting news articles about language in general and English in particular are provided.
Wordsmith.org was founded by Anu Garg, an Indian-American, when he was still a student. Today it is a huge online community with about 600000 linguaphiles from over 200 countries (courtesy : Wordsmith.org). Anu Garg has also authored some interesting books on words.
Visit the site when you can and send a gift subscription to those you love. Its free and it is useful !
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