Jennifer from Racine, Wisconsin, uses hooptie — also spelled hoopty or hoopdee — for her aging 1988 Mazda RX-7 convertible, despite her husband’s doubts that the word is real. The slang dates at least to the 1960s, when it could simply mean a car or...
An Indiana woman is puzzled about a phrase in the old western song, “I Ride An Old Paint”: “I’m goin’ to Montana to throw the houlihan.” What’s a houlihan? You’ll find one version of the lyrics here...
It’s “Slang for $500.” All-time Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings tackles his next logical challenge, the A Way with Words slang quiz. Ken puzzles over the meaning of brummagem and pluck of a pig, and tries to guess an usual meaning...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle in which we remove the first letter of a phrase to yield another with a different meaning. Try one: originally it was a boxing film starring Robert De Niro. Now it describes a head of cattle that’s...
This week’s Slang This! contestant is asked to guess the meanings of the slang terms gauge and head-up. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Gauge and Head-Up” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski tries to stump the hosts with a puzzle called Cryptic Crosswords. How about this one: “Do-re-mi-fa follower + sneaker feature = comfort.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cryptic Clues...
