The word cria refers to “a baby llama,” and derives from Spanish criar, meaning “to rear” or “to raise” a young animal. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cria, the Llama Baby” Grant, I just learned the meaning of the word Kriag. C-R...
During the COVID-19 lockdown in the English countryside, writer Chloe Dalton stumbles upon a leveret no bigger than the width of her palm, lying motionless on a dirt road. Against her better judgment, she scoops it up. Most leverets in captivity die...
Jimmy from Shenandoah County, Virginia, says whenever a moth flew into the room, his mother would yell “Cattle bat!” This term is almost certainly a variation of candle bat, a folk term for moths found in various English dialects. In Caribbean...
What do a baby eel, a baby salmon, a baby oyster, and a baby hare have in common? They all have names most people have never heard: elver, smolt, spat, and leveret. A cria is a baby llama or alpaca, from a Spanish word that refers to the rearing of...
In English, the tip of the iceberg refers metaphorically to a small visible part of something immense. In Afrikaans, there’s a phrase suggesting the same thing that translates as “the tips of the hippo’s ears.” This is part of a complete episode...
A listener in Colby, Wisconsin, says that growing up, she called a drink with ice cream in root beer a black cow. But when she moved to Wisconsin, she found that the locals called the same beverage a root beer float. The era of drugstore fountains...


