Sheila in Charlotte, North Carolina, remembers her father used to ask the kids if they needed any geetus, meaning “Do you need any money?” This word for money is spelled several ways, including geedus, geetis, geetas, gheetus, and geets, as in Give me some geets. Its origin is uncertain. 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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