Irv in Montreal, Canada, says that in his city, English speakers will typically use the word messages where others might use errands, as in I’m going to do some messages. The oldest meaning of the word errand is “message,” “news,” or “tidings.” In modern Scots, someone doing errands is said to go the messages, and a shopping bag might be called a message bag. In Scotland and Ireland, the phrase do the messages may more often mean shopping for someone else rather than oneself, and thanks to migration patterns, this locution is also heard in parts of the Caribbean. In French, faire des commissions, including the French-speaking parts of Canada, can mean “run errands” or “deliver messages.” 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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