Tess from southeastern Pennsylvania wonders about the origins of coleslaw. It comes from Dutch koolsla, meaning simply “cabbage salad.” The cole part shares its root with kale, the cauli in cauliflower, and the kohl in kohlrabi. All these words go...
The new movie Dream Horse tells a true story that takes place in a tiny Welsh village. A bartender tries to breed a championship racehorse and persuades her neighbors to chip in. They agree, they say, because they want to do it for the hwyl. The...
A Courtland, Alabama, woman wonders about the phrase hairy at the heel. Along with hairy-heeled, hairy about the heels, and hairy about the fetlocks, this snobby term describes someone who is considered ill-bred. It derives from the fact that non...
Anne in Amherst, Massachusetts, remembers a family euphemism from her proper grandmother, born in 1869: instead of saying bull, she said the animal. That exact wording may have been her own, but the impulse fit a larger late-19th- and early-20th...
