Pat in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, says that when his brother Paul was young, he misunderstood their father’s references to Miami. Paul always thought his dad was referring to his own personal ammy, and the family still refers to that South Florida city as Dad’s ammy. This is part of a complete episode.
That’s so cute! This reminded me of an anecdote that comes up in my family often. We’re Dutch, and when my brother would ask my mum when his birthday was, my mother would reply it’s on dertien mei (May 13). As it happens, in Dutch, the month of May is pronounced exactly the same as the personal pronoun ‘mij’ (used in the same places as English ‘my’). I bet you can guess where this is going. When my brother then told somebody his own birthday, he replied it was on ‘dertien mama’ (thirteen momma’).
A member of the ski patrol at Vermont’s Sugarbush Resort shares some workplace slang. Boilerplate denotes hard-packed snow with a ruffled pattern that makes skis chatter, death cookies are random chunks that could cause an accident, and...
A resident of Michigan’s scenic Beaver Island shares the term, boodling, which the locals use to denote the social activity of leisurely wandering the island, often with cold fermented beverages. There have been various proposed etymologies...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter!
Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
That’s so cute! This reminded me of an anecdote that comes up in my family often. We’re Dutch, and when my brother would ask my mum when his birthday was, my mother would reply it’s on dertien mei (May 13). As it happens, in Dutch, the month of May is pronounced exactly the same as the personal pronoun ‘mij’ (used in the same places as English ‘my’). I bet you can guess where this is going. When my brother then told somebody his own birthday, he replied it was on ‘dertien mama’ (thirteen momma’).