Michelle in Thorne Bay, Alaska, uses nervous Nellie for herself on snowy roads and wonders who Nellie was. The expression, meaning a timid or overly cautious person, shows up in the early 1920s and was popularized in political talk about Frank B...
With memorable phrases like coagulated sunlight and gilded gravel, poem “Churning Day” by Seamus Heaney is a fine example of how poets can draw out astonishing beauty from the most mundane of tasks — in this case, churning butter. This is part of a...
A listener in Helena, Montana, shares a followup to our conversation about the question Do you live around here or ride a bicycle? A similarly goofy expression goes Is it further to Butte or by bus? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Kolin in Los Angeles, California, says his friend Helen is known for writing witty tweets that go viral, such as one about the difference between men’s and women’s midlife crises. He says she credits her success in part to her use of assonance, or...
Yvette, a biology professor in Bismarck, North Dakota, wonders why some words are more pleasurable to say than others. Among her favorites: ovoviviparous, which describes animals whose eggs hatch inside the mother’s body or shortly after being...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s head-scratcher involves pairs of words that both start with the same letter, but not the same sound. For example, what do you call a seat with vertical spindles in the back, often used by the person in charge of a ship? This...