Why do so many people begin their sentences with the word so? This sentence-initial so (as it’s known) can play lots of roles. We’ve talked about it before, too. This is part of a complete episode.
A Carmel, Indiana, teacher is puzzled to hear younger colleagues pronounce the words kitten and mitten as KIH-un and MIH-un, with a noticeable break between the syllables. Linguist David Eddington of Brigham Young University reports that this...
A nine-year-old from Yuma, Arizona, wants to know the origin of catawampus. So do etymologists. Catawampus means “askew,” “awry,” or “crooked.” We do know the word has been around for more than a century and is...
A Las Vegas, Nevada, listener says her South Dakota-born mother always refers to supper as the last meal of the day and dinner as the largest meal of the day. It’s caused some confusion in the family. Linguist Bert Vaux has produced dialect...
When getting closer to an objective, do you hone in, home in, zone in, or zero in? The phrase zero in goes back to World War II and the act of fixing on a target. Home in carries a sense of traveling to or being aimed at something, but people...
The very conversational phrase “yeah, no,” is a common way people signify that they agree with only part of a statement. It’s like saying, “I hear you, but ultimately I disagree.” This is part of a complete episode.