A young listener once asked if there was a single word for “a combination of being nervous but also excited” about something. Listeners offered several of their own coinages, including nervouscited. Another helpful term along these lines might be eustress, which is defined as “a positive emotional response to a stressor.” This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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