We’ve talked before about surprising local pronunciations of things like towns or streets. A term or pronunciation that distinguishes locals from outsiders is called a shibboleth. The word derives from the biblical story of the warring...
When Ana from the San Diego area tried to render her mother’s Spanish saying about an old tree that no longer grows straight, You can’t teach an old dog new tricks wasn’t well received. The dog image, translated into Spanish, sounded much more...
When it comes to tattoos, passages of text are an increasingly popular alternative to images. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Text Tattoos” You’re listening to A Way with Words, a show about language and how we...
Does the expression petered out have to do with the Apostle Peter denying he knew Jesus? No, “petered out” may derive from the French peter, meaning to “pass gas.” Another theory is that the expression originated in mining...
A woman in Burlington, Vermont, says her mother used to use the expression land o’ Goshen! to express surprise or amazement. Where is Goshen? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Land o’ Goshen” Hello, you have...
If someone is “poor as Joe’s turkey,” he’s impoverished. A caller raised in the South has heard that expression all his life, but wonders: Who was Joe, and what did his turkey have to do with anything? Things get clearer when...