Mackenzie from Green Bay, Wisconsin, learned the word agita from a friend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She uses it to refer to “that heavy, sluggish feeling one gets after eating too much,” the feeling some call the meat sweats. The word agita comes...
“Biting the bit,” akin to champing at the bit, means someone’s raring to go, or out of control. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Biting the Bit” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Christina from Oakland. Hi, Christina...
A college senior has invented a word to describe that anxiety we feel when there’s unfinished work looming over us. He calls it desgundes. As in, “that twenty-year-old in the library making a three-foot boondoggle must likely be dealing with some...
ICUitis n.— «Shalof describes the absolute chaos she and her patients feel when they are transferred out of the ICU with 1:1 nursing care to the floor where nurses may have up to eight patients. As a floor nurse, I can see the shock this causes a...
gate fever n.—Gloss: in the U.K., a prisoner’s growing preoccupation with leaving jail as a scheduled release date approaches. «I received over 700 letters of support while in Pentonville which massively boosted my morale each day. The worst week...
heart-attack team attrib.— «We are a heart-attack team. I wouldn’t bet my drawers on winning tonight, but we’re going to take it because we’re a fighting city» —“Anxiety hits a fever pitch” by Jack Warner Atlanta Journal and...

