Why do we write the sound of a dog barking as bow wow? Isn’t that noise more like woof, woof or arf, arf or ruff ruff? Surprisingly, the oldest of these is bow wow, or as William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest (Bookshop|Amazon), bowgh wawgh...
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...
Mike in Jacksonville, Florida, is curious about the phrase There’s no use in keeping the dogs and doing the barking yourself. His dad would use it when delegating a chore to one of his kids. As early as the 1500s, the proverb Don’t keep...
bark n.— «The pulled pork is a good portion for the price. The meat has what is called, in barbecue jargon, a “bark” on the outside. The bark is the dark coating of dry rub cooked on the surface of the meat. Under the bark is...
rark up v. phr.— «They were supposed to come galloping out of a wood shed (on a long rope) and bark viciously at the approaching gang of people. I was in the woodshed rarking them up, but they run out half-barking, decide there wasn’t any...
crypsis n. the camouflage or protective appearance of an insect or animal. Editorial Note: Crypsis includes the stripes of a zebra that permit individuals to blend with a herd, moths that take on bark-like coloring so they are indistinguishable on...