A listener in York, England wonders about the word grockles, a derogatory term for tourists. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Grockles” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. This is Jared, who lives near York...
A listener from Falmouth, Maine, disagrees with his Canadian friends about how to pronounce the word aunt. He says it shouldn’t sound like the name of the insect. But is that the way most people pronounce this word for your mother’s...
A caller has a friendly disagreement with a pal: Is the expression “tide me over” or “tie me over”? Hint: The answer she gets should tide her over. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Is the Saying “Tide...
Where do you put those exclamation points and question marks– do they go inside or outside the quotation marks? Can you say, “We have the answer!”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Do Question Marks and...
A longboarder reports she and her fellow surfers refer to young surfers as groms or grommets—not to be confused, of course, with hodads and kooks. But where’d that surfing lingo come from? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
familismo n.—Gloss: a sense of family among Latinos. Note: Appears primarily to be used in English-language contexts and rarely in Spanish texts. «The sense of family in the Latino community is so strong academics have coined a term for...