Sherman from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, says her grandfather used to speak of accomplishing something physically challenging through main strength and awkwardness–in other words, through brute force and sheer determination. In the 1500s, English speakers used the expressions main force, main courage, and main logic, to suggest this idea of managing to do something through pure willpower or muscle, and without much finesse. By the mid-1800s, they got across the same idea with such phrases as main strength and stupidity, main strength and prodigious awkwardness, main strength and pure awkwardness, main strength and ambition, main strength and ignorance, main strength and stubbornness, main strength and roughness, and main strength and determination. This is part of a complete episode.
A Winter Dictionary (Bookshop|Amazon) by Paul Anthony Jones includes some words to lift your spirits. The verb whicken involves the lengthening of days in springtime, a variant of quicken, meaning “come to life.” Another word, breard, is...
Rosalind from Montgomery, Alabama, says her mother used to scold her for acting like a starnadle fool. The more common version of this term is starnated fool, a term that appears particular to Black English, and appears in the work of such writers...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter!
Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
