Welcome to another A Way with Words newsletter! With any luck, our A Way with Words email messages don’t end up in your spam folder. But did you ever wonder why junk mail is called spam in the first place? There’s a funny story behind this term, and...
Trivia time! Where in the United States can you visit Soda City? If you answered Columbia, South Carolina, you’re right! This nickname apparently derives from an old practice of abbreviating Columbia as Cola. The locals then referred to the town as...
Howdy! Ever hear questions that are really veiled criticism, or apologies that are actually excuses? That, and more, in our latest episode: language for resolving personal conflict, in like Flynn, gradoo, Irish pennants, champing, and a silly rule...
Hey, friends! Since we last emailed you, we’ve aired two new episodes of the show: Lie Like a Rug — Cut a chogi meaning to “take a shortcut,” plus sufficiently suffonsified, make ends meet, belly robber, slang from Albuquerque, gender...
Dear friends and fans, A Way with Words starts a new season this weekend and we need your help to raise $50,000 to cover costs. To keep enjoying new episodes of the show, give now. Surprising Reasons to Help Here’s a surprising fact: A...
Give a tax-deductible donation to A Way with Words right now. Not long ago, I made a speech to a high school in San Diego. I was asked by those in charge to talk about careers. How I got to be a dictionary editor, a journalist, a radio show host...
