The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
Josh in Binghamton, New York, wonders about the slang term beefed it, meaning to “took a hard fall.” It’s probably connected to biff, often used in snowboarding and mountain biking, meaning “to fail” or “do badly...
Anna in Dallas, Texas, doubts her fiancée Sarah’s family word biffed it, but Sarah has the dictionaries on her side: to biff it can mean to fall, especially in an embarrassing way. Sarah grew up hearing it from her grandmother and aunt, including...