We spoke with a listener about the German word querfeldein, or literally “diagonally into the field,” which he used to describe an informal route he and his wife had taken while out for a walk. Many other listeners chimed in with...
Ben calls from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to say that he and his wife, who is from Germany, were taking a leisurely stroll at Valley Forge. They ended up leaving one of the trails and taking a diagonal route across a field and agreed that in...
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...