Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving...
A customer-service representative from Seattle, Washington, is curious about the phrases people use as a part of leave-taking when they’re finishing a telephone conversation. Linguists who conduct discourse analysis on such conversations say...
A whole nother may feel right to say, at least informally, and you will find it in dictionaries, but it’s better to avoid it in formal writing and speech. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Whole Nother” Hi, you...
A caller from San Diego, California, wonders about the proper way to pluralize analysis: is analysises ever correct? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Proper Plurals” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. My name...