We take our voices for granted, but it’s truly miraculous that we communicate complex thoughts simply by moving our mouths while exhaling. A fascinating new book reveals the science, history, and linguistics involved in human speech. And...
When working on a construction site in Kentucky, Te’koa from Norfolk, Virginia, heard someone use the term si-gogglin to describe something that’s “crooked,” or “curvy.” Variants heard primarily in Appalachia...
The gallywampus is a large, wobbly insect that looks like an overgrown mosquito. These long-legged creatures and others like them go by lots of funny-sounding names, including gallinipper, gabber napper, and granny-nipper. This is part of a complete...
Noah, a nine-year-old in Yuma, Arizona, asks about cattywampus, the word his mother uses for things that are messed up. It means askew, awry, crooked, or otherwise not as it should be. The origin is uncertain, but the word is at least a century old...
Sure, it’s scary to send your writing to a literary agent. But pity the poor agent who must wade through hundreds of terrible query letters a week! One of them shares excerpts from those hilariously bad query letters on a blog called SlushPile...
Michael from Weatherford, Texas, called because he hears caddywampus more often in Texas than in California. Catawampus, meaning “askew,” can be spelled at least 15 different ways, with Ks, Cs, Ds, and different vowels. It likely derives from the...