John, a 10-year-old from Dallas, Texas, wonders why an unpredictable or uncontrollable person can be referred to as a loose cannon. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Loose Cannon” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, I’m John and...
Matt from Waukesha, Wisconsin, has been discussing the words barely and nearly with his 10-year-old son Simon. They know the two words are nearly alike, but how exactly? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Barely vs. Nearly” Hello...
Nancy in Dallas, Texas, shares a funny story about a preschooler’s misunderstanding of the expression in the meantime, meaning “in the interim.” The mean in meantime derives from a Latin medius, “in the middle,” the source also of such words as...
Danil, a ninth-grader in Traverse City, Michigan, says his class is curious about the term baby blue. This color name apparently has to do with the pale eye color of some newborn babies. A poem reprinted in newspapers across the United States in the...
Gwen, a sixth-grader in Rosalia, Washington, wonders why indifferent doesn’t mean simply “not different” or “uniquely different.” Her father’s gloss, “not caring,” is the standard sense: apathetic, unconcerned, or having no preference either way...
Eight-year-old Violet in Zionsville, Indiana, grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, saying sprinkles more like sprankles, rhyming with rankles. On paper, the cupcake topping is spelled sprinkles, with an i; in speech, her family’s pronunciation is simply...
