What’s the difference, if any, between a caregiver and a caretaker? Generally in the United States, a caretaker is someone who tends property; a caregiver looks after a person. The term caregiver is far more recent. This is part of a complete...
Those of us in the United States and Britain may be separated by a common language, but we’re also separated when it comes to how we indicate numbers. A Numberphile video featuring linguist Lynne Murphy explains this in more depth. This is...
Jingoism is not archaic yet, just a sharper-than-usual word for aggressive, chest-thumping nationalism. Katie in East Thetford, Vermont, had used jingoistic for a political candidate and wondered if it was merely a family word. Its history runs...
It’s that time of year when Martha and Grant share their book recommendations for the holiday gift season. This year, Martha gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up to Letters of Note, The Sense of Style, and Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English...
Broken pieces of pottery, commonly known as shards, are also referred to as sherds by professional archaeologists. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Shards and Sherds” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Ben...
Where does the term one-off come from? Among British foundry workers in the 1950s, the number of units produced from a given mold was designated with the word off. So if twenty widgets came off the line, you’d call that batch a twenty-off. A...