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Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

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Loan as a verb was common in Britain in the 18th century, and so it was in use by British Colonists who settled in America. The usage survived in what became the United States but faded in Britain.

The film’s version of “Dancing Through Life” is so backlit that it’s hard to make out characters beyond a blinding white glare, an offense second only to the way Elphaba is filmed in low light.

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The survival of loan as a verb in the U.S. and its disfavor in Britain is a reminder that in language usage, as in clothing and furniture, fashion – yes, I said fashion – plays a crucial role. Words are not Platonic ideals with a separate existence. We make them up, collectively, and decide what they mean, collectively. Then we alter what they mean, collectively, not by logic or design, but by the changing of our tastes and preferences.

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But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

But there is a point of distinction to be observed. Both lend and loan can offer someone the temporary use of something, but loan can refer only to money or physical objects. For figurative senses, as when Mark Antony says, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” only lend will do.

On investigation, we can find out that loan as a verb has quite the pedigree in English, with Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage pointing out that it has been current since the early 14th century. We’ve been loaning for 700 years.

The verbing of nouns and the nouning of verbs are common in English. Open a dictionary at random and you almost surely see definitions of a word in both noun and verb senses. If you have access to a historical dictionary, like the Oxford English Dictionary, you can see which sense arose first, but it doesn’t matter; both senses are there now.

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In the 19th century, an American grammarian, Richard Grant White, noticed the difference and proclaimed that loan was a noun and should only be used as such. He based this edict, Merriam-Webster’s explains, on a mistaken etymology. But it got into the textbooks and usage manuals, and with the “monkey see, monkey do” pattern of textbook publishing, the prohibition has survived despite common usage.

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The bright light from the kitchen and a collection of backlit jars filled with corn kernels — evoking feelings of a science laboratory — also draw your eye.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

In the western city of Kutaisi, a crowd of several hundred supporters listen to Nika Gvaramia, from the opposition Coalition for Change, as he speaks from a stage backlit by EU and Georgian flags on flat screens.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.

In case you need backing, Merriam-Webster’s says that “although a surprising number of critics still voice objections, ‘loan’ is entirely standard as a verb.” The American Heritage Dictionary concurs: It “has seen vigorous use in American English and must be considered standard.”

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Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

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About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

It is likely that someone taught you that lend is a verb and loan a noun, never the two to be confused. “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” is Popeye’s friend Wimpy’s request for a loan; to give Wimpy money for a hamburger is to lend it. And yet, such is people’s obstinacy, you will hear them talk about loaning things, many things.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

From the Middle East to Europe, one of the biggest questions today is: How many Syrians who fled their homes during the civil war will return? Dominique Soguel offers the first glimpses of an answer today.My attention turns to the al-Khansour family, who stayed in Syria, resettling in the city run by the rebels who now control the country. It is a slice of what Syria was – and perhaps could be.

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

Gold-hued orbs float from the ceiling against a dark interior, where jars of herbs line the backlit walls, casting a faint, warm, honey-toned glow.