Merriam-Webster's online dictionary has a new, fun, and interactive Time Traveler tool (no TARDIS required) that let's you search by year for the first time a word appeared in print. 

​For example, editor first appeared in 1649. 1776 brought us killjoy and practical joke. In 1964, gun control, zip-code, and skinny-dip were added to the lexicon. 1982 gave us barista, domain name, and couch potato. And in 2014, we added manspreading.

​Time Traveler is a fascinating look at the history of English words. ​Check it out here: 
https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler

Pro tip: It's especially fun to look up words that were introduced in the year you were born!

Yes, it’s really a thing. March 4th is National Grammar Day in the U.S. It was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and a bit of a hottie. Why not celebrate by making sure your sentences are grammatically correct? Use the preferred or prescribed features of our language when speaking or writing, i.e., “the rules.” So it’s “I don’t know anything about grammar” and not “I don’t know nothing about grammar.” 

And by the way, while writing “Its not my problem,” “Your my favorite,” or “Their having fun,” certainly shows a lack of good spelling, they are all grammatically correct sentences. It’s always a good idea to double-check your spelling, and watch out for those homophones. So although spelling and punctuation errors are not grammatical errors, why not go crazy and try to perfect those, too? 

And don’t forget your social media posts and text messages!

I’ve always been a person who is very conscientious about spelling. So it’s not surprising that when I decided to start this grammar blog, I was immediately struck with a “how do you spell that?” moment. I was thinking about subjects I could cover and the possibilities for catchy titles describing groups of similar posts. For example, ongoing posts about grammar mistakes I could call “Grammar Gaffes.” Or would that be Grammar “Gaffs”—without the ‘e’? Out came my dictionary, and voilà! I had my answer. And the subject of my first blog.