After a listener suggested that a phone dictation error might be called a mico, formed by analogy with typo, a Texas listener wrote to say that such autocorrect blunders are better referred to as autocorrupt. This is part of a complete episode...
Critters, co-workers, and clothes: What do you call your favorite mixed-breed dog? There are Heinz 57 mutts and Texas brown dogs in the U.S., while in parts of the Caribbean they’re called potcakes and coconut retrievers. Plus, among firefighters...
Lydia in Portland, Maine, was texting someone about having seen an opossum, but wasn’t quite sure how to write that out with the article. Is it a or an opposum? Like most Americans, she drops the initial unstressed syllable, making it sound like...
Emily in San Diego wonders whether the brand name Segway is nudging people toward spelling segue as segway. The older word’s spelling looks un-English because it came through Italian seguire, meaning “to follow,” with relatives in Latin and in non...
First-century graffiti. People in ancient times could be just as bawdy and colorful as we are today. To prove it, we found some graffiti written on the walls in the city of Pompeii, and found plenty of sex, arrogance and good old fashioned bathroom...
A Tallahassee, Florida, mother who texted her daughter in a hurry accidentally asked about the “baby woes,” meaning “baby wipes,” and came to the conclusion that we need a new phrase: “read between the autocorrect...