The bird known as the predicted ant wren was indeed predicted: Genetic analysis of birds in the Western Amazon convinced biologists that an undescribed species of ant wren was living there, so they went looking. In 2013 they found it exactly where...
Robert in Dover, Delaware, grew up hearing different ways to say aunt, from the version that sounds like ant to the same broader vowel as in haunt common in parts of the East Coast. In most of the United States, aunt rhymes with ant. The other...
We spoke on the show recently about the term avuncular, meaning like an uncle, and some listeners responded with terms for being like an aunt. Try out auntly or avauntular, if you’re looking to impress and/or alienate someone at the reunion...
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...
anting n.— «The behavior you witnessed, Mona, is called “anting.” I know it seems like it should be called “mothballing,” but anting is much easier to say. Plus, more often than not, birds rub their feathers with...
