A listener had told us that she’d bought an old house with a separate room off of the kitchen that contained a dishwashing sink and cupboards and wondered what to call it. We noted that it’s sometimes called simply a sink room, but many...
Imagine trying to tell someone how to get to your home without using the name of your street, or for that matter, the names of any other nearby streets. That challenge makes you realize just how much we take for granted the words we use to tell...
Nazi fuel n.— «This expensive coal-to-liquid process was later used by South Africa to meet its energy needs during its isolation under apartheid. And now what some people refer to as “Nazi fuel” is back—thanks in part to high oil prices...