Martha recommends Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen, a deeply personal, exuberant account of falling in love with both ancient and modern Greek by Mary Norris, former copy editor for The New Yorker. Norris shares several intriguing modern...
Paloma from Escondido, California, asks about how the hosts developed their attitudes toward language. We share some of those influences, which include, in Martha’s case, studying Ancient Greek for 12 years with a polyglot professor, and in...
Our conversation about Spanish idioms involving food prompted a tweet from Tijuana, Mexico: del plato a la boca, se cae la sopa, or between the dish and the mouth, the soup spills, or don’t count your chickens before they hatch. A similar idea is...
Jan in Ketchikan, Alaska, says when she worked in a hospital in Maine, co-workers described a patient with a low pain threshold or otherwise reluctant to move about as spleeny. New Englanders in particular use the term spleeny to mean fussy...
Steganography is the practice of concealing messages within text, digitized data, or other objects. The word derives from Greek words that mean “covered writing.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
If you need a synonym for freckle, there’s always the word ephelis, from ancient Greek for “nail stud.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “An Ephelis is a Freckle” Here’s an interesting word, if...
