Amy is a historian who leads walking tours in Atlanta, Georgia, but she’s puzzled by the name of a certain roadway there. It’s called Airline Street, but despite its name, it has nothing to do with Hartsfield-Jackson International. The name of this...
Jeff in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is looking for a specific word for “exhaustion after extreme physical activity, such as running a marathon.” Synonyms for exhausted include knackered and forswunk, from swink, meaning “to toil” or “to work hard.” In...
Greg in Mena, Arkansas, says that when he was learning to be a professional pilot, one of his instructors would say, You thought like Nelly if someone had thought they were doing something correctly, but failed to. Although the phrase is not that...
Mitchell from Arlington, Texas, wonders about his father’s expression: If a bullfrog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his butt. It’s been around since at least the early 1900s, and is a variation on an older expression, If pigs had wings, they could fly...
A woman in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, wonders: Why is the less busy period in a tourist area known as the shoulder season? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Shoulder Season” Hello, welcome to A Way with Words. Hi, this is Betsy. Hey...
Your telephone is for talking, right? Or is it? We’re guessing it’s been a while since you sat next to a telephone waiting for it to ring. In fact, maybe you’re one of those people who HATE to see that voicemail message light blinking. But for many...
