Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

My latest slang column for the Malaysia Star: The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang.

In Howard Marks' rollicking memoir of a life of crime, Mr Nice, he describes living as a fugitive from justice: “I was fully aware that any one of them could turn me in to the authorities at any time. I just big-headedly assumed that anyone who knew me liked me and wouldn't do such a thing. I was too nice to be grassed.” Tattling (tale-telling) is the sort of thing that rascals like Marks have to worry about, so it's no surprise that the underworld has an abundance of synonyms for it.