Eric from Millbank, South Dakota, says his grandmother used the term duke’s mixture to denote “a hodgepodge,” such as ingredients in a stew. Duke’s mixture was originally the name of a cheap tobacco that was made from leftover odds and ends of...
Paul from Omaha, Nebraska, says as a result of watching the College World Series in that city, he and his son wondered when sports announcers started using the word cheese to describe a pitcher’s fastball, and such variants as throwing cheese, hard...
The small of the back—the part of one’s lower back where the spine curves in—is so called because it’s the narrowest point. When Vladimir Nabokov wrote about that in English, he borrowed the sexy French word ensellure. This is part of a complete...