Nikki in Northampton, Massachusetts, wonders about a term her dad used for someone who’s a little odd or weird: do funny. As far back as the 1850s, Do funny or Doo funny was an amusing last name for characters in satire, whether in newspapers or onstage. Over time it joined a category of terms known as indefinite specifics, words that include doohickey, thingamajig, and whatchamacallit. Starting in the 1920s, there was a play called The Doo-Funny Family (Bookshop|Amazon) that was performed around the country, featuring slapstick and broad humor. In the African-American community, the term has also meant “a gay man.” 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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