Martha from Tallahassee, Florida, remembers hearing older relatives announce they were going for their constitutional, a term that traces back to Latin constitutio, meaning “character,” “disposition,” “nature,” or “the essence of a thing.” Its...
Robert in Tucson, Arizona, asks how reptile enthusiasts should pronounce in situ, the Latin phrase meaning “in place,” used for finding a snake, lizard, or turtle exactly where it was, not posed for the camera. Because in situ still feels partly...
Thanks to a project led by Professor Charlotte Brewer of Oxford University and research fellow Stephen Turton of Cambridge, you can now enjoy a trove of letters between James Augustus Henry Murray and his many correspondents during his work on what...
A Houston, Texas, woman wants to know, “Why are there so many different dictionaries?” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why Are There So Many Dictionaries?” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, this is...
If you’re facing a Hobson’s choice, you don’t really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what’s offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice...