If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce ask as “axe”? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer. This is part of a complete episode.
If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce ask as “axe”? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer. This is part of a complete episode.
In Hong Kong English, Add oil! means something like “Go on!” or “Go for it!” A recent addition to the Oxford English Dictionary, this expression of encouragement comes from Cantonese (加油 or gā yáu; rendered as jiāyóu from Mandarin) and draws on the...
A Green Bay Packers fan wonders why a quarterback who’s tackled is said to be sacked. The roots of the word sack as in “bag” goes back thousands of years, all the way to Akkadian, later spreading through Greek, Latin, and then to Romance and...