Marco from San Diego, California, is curious about why sportscasters speak of a player who put English on a ball. The expression appears to have begun with British players of billiards and snooker, who first figured out how to give a ball some extra spin. Body English refers to the way a player or observer twists and turn once a ball is already in motion, as if they could somehow add a little extra spin after the fact. Sports announcers also refer to a ball that’s passed too hard as having a lot of mustard on it. That’s simply a way of comparing that added force to extra “spice.” This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
Whitney from Providence, Rhode Island, shares a funny story about her toddler’s misunderstanding of the word Shoo, as in Shoo it away. It has nothing to do with the shoe you wear on your foot! This is part of a complete episode.
Related
A Dallas, Texas, woman and her friends often use the expression All the things to mean something like and whatnot or as a way to signal a kind of mutual understanding, suggesting something similar to the phrase you know. This sense probably comes...