Karina from Maryville, Missouri, disagrees with her mom about whether bowl and bull sound the same. Karina hears them as the same sound, while her mom hears a clear difference. It’s an example of a vowel merger, or sound shift, that occurs in...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski gathers clues to words that contain æ, the ligature called ash that can appear in such words as Cæsar. For example, what’s a dessert historically served after church services? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
When a child reaches a milestone like graduation, the proud and excited feeling can come with sadness because they’re leaving that stage of life. A Berea, Kentucky, listener proposes the portmanteau sad-abration, combining the words...
John from Louisville, Kentucky, is curious about a line on a track by Jay-Z and Timbaland where Jay-Z says wants not a magnum, but a Methuselah. The reference is to wine bottles, not weapons. A standard bottle holds about 750 milliliters, while a...
The bird known as the predicted ant wren was indeed predicted: Genetic analysis of birds in the Western Amazon convinced biologists that an undescribed species of ant wren was living there, so they went looking. In 2013 they found it exactly where...
What is the origin of the word flabbergasted? The –gasted in flabbergasted probably relates to aghast, as in “astonished” or “horrified,” but the source of the flabber- is unclear. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The...