MaryAnne from Dallas, Texas, says that sometimes when she or her siblings asked her father how much he spent on something he’d answer A buck three-eighty. It’s one of many similar expressions that allow the speaker to give an approximate answer or just shrug and dismiss the question altogether, including A dollar three-eighty, buck one-eighty, buck two-eighty, buck three-eighty, buck two-ninety, buck two-ninety-eight, buck two-ninety-five,nickel ninety-five, and eleventy-seven. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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