The expression If you don’t chance your arm, you won’t break your neck makes use of the sense of break your neck meaning “to go all out.” The break your neck part may refer to having success from giving all your effort. Chance your arm, meaning “risk your arm,” may have originated in Ireland. In fact, one story about its possible origin involves St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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