Amber in Mansfield, Texas, has a friend from London, England. After she moved to the States, the friend was surprised to find that when she’s conversing with strangers from the United States, they’ll drop in what Americans think of as stereotypical...
Sangwich, sammitch, and samwidge are natural workarounds for the tricky consonant cluster in sandwich. Eric in San Antonio grew up hearing sangwich from parents, grandparents, and friends, then changed his pronunciation after seeing the word in...
Anthony in Salt Lake City remembers using frajo for a cigarette in high school in Pueblo, Colorado, where it worked as classroom code alongside Spanglish terms like fedia for money. The word turns up in studies of Mexican-American youth slang from...
Does the expression petered out have to do with the Apostle Peter denying he knew Jesus? No, “petered out” may derive from the French peter, meaning to “pass gas.” Another theory is that the expression originated in mining and the use of saltpeter...
The hosts tackle a longstanding mystery about the word shoshabong. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Shoshabong” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Helene from Madison, Wisconsin. Hello, Helene. Welcome. Welcome to the...
A Dallas man says his grandmother used to carry around washcloth a plastic bag in her purse. When he and his siblings would get their hands dirty, she’d say to them, “Show me your paddywackers,” and they’d hold out their hands to be wiped clean. He...
