A young listener wonders: Why do the words icing and frosting both refer to the idea of being cold? The names for this sweet cover on a cake refer to its appearance, not its temperature. Something similar occurs with the glaze in glazed doughnut, which refers to its glazed or “glassy” appearance. Some people in the Southern United States call that covering filling, even when it’s on top of a cake, and in the U.S. Midlands, it’s jokingly referred to as calf slobber. 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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