Star in Santa Claus, Indiana, says her grandpa nicknamed her Snooksy. But why? A popular radio show that ran from 1936 to 1951 featured Fanny Brice playing a mischievous character named Baby Snooks, loosely based on a comic strip character, Baby Snookums. Snooksy-wooksy, Lambsy-wamsy, and Honey-bun are all hypocoristic names formed by reduplication. 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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