When something’s crooked, some people describe it as catawampus, cattywampus, or kittywampus. A caller wonders about the historical roots of all these words. Anything to do with felines? This is part of a complete episode.
Ever notice when people start to answer to a question with the words, “Yeah, no–“? Linguists have been studying this seemingly contradictory phrase for years. It may look like oxymoron, but it’s not. This is part of a...
If you were raised in North Dakota like our caller, you might wonder about a phrase you heard growing up: “It’s a horse apiece.” It means something like “six of one, half a dozen of the other.” She is curious about the...
A caller remembers an odd phrase from her childhood. If she asked too many questions, her mother would brush them off with the phrase “layers for meddlers and crutches for lame ducks.” Say what? This is part of a complete episode.
It’s the Moby Dick of etymology: Where do we get the phrase “the whole nine yards”? A pediatrician in North Carolina wonders if it derives from a World War II phrase involving “nine yards” of ammunition. Grant and...
On an earlier episode we talked about regional differences involving the words dinner and supper, prompting a whole smorgasbord of responses. Grant reads a few of them on the air. This is part of a complete episode.