Bored? Then this quiz is for you. Our Puzzle Master John Chaneski hits us with a word game where all the answers begin with “ho” or “hum.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Ho Hum Word Game” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the...
News reports that the makers of Scrabble were changing the rules to allow proper names left some purists fuming. The rumors were false, but they got Grant thinking about idiosyncratic adaptations of the game’s rules. Also this week, the origins of...
Grant follows up on his chickpea vs. garbanzo poll, and shares an email on the subject from the U.S. Dry Bean Council. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Chickpea and Garbanzo Poll” A few weeks ago, we took a question from a listener...
Nancy in Danville, California, wonders why a dried grape becomes a raisin and a dried plum becomes a prune. English borrowed raisin and prune from French, where raisin means grape and prune means plum, through different routes and at different times...
Hi, language lovers! Happy March 4, and Happy National Grammar Day! (Get it? “March forth” and syntactically sin no more?) Join the revelry here: Just don’t say we didn’t warn you about the earworm from that grammar song, okay? We would have let you...
