Here’s a riddle: “Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.” Think you know the answer? You’ll find it in this week’s episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other brain-busters. Also: how did...
Obamamania, Obamabot, Obamathon, Obamamentum— the list of variations on the name “Obama” goes on and on. Is there an English word that means “the in-laws of your son or daughter”? And what does it mean when someone says, “Well, that was odder than...
Remember when no one ever thought about adding the suffix “-gate” to a word to indicate a scandal? Now there’s Troopergate, Travelgate, Monicagate, Cameragate, Sandwichgate, and of course, the mother of all gates, Watergate. Grant talks about the...
Some people wouldn’t be caught without the season’s latest fashions, and others never leave home without their asthma inhaler. But for some of us, what strikes fear into our hearts is the thought of being caught without a book. Jeanie in Wisconsin...
horseracism n.— Note: This term has recently been credited by Jack Shafer as a coinage by Brian Montopoli in 2004, but Montopoli’s coinage came much later than the 1995 use cited here. It does seem likely to be the sort of word that is coined and...
bandonym n.— «More singer-songwriters have noticed that you don’t need a “bandonym” (in critic Carl Wilson’s useful coinage) to wrap yourself in myth.» —“The Writ Stuff” by Franklin Bruno Phoenix (Boston, Massachusetts) Nov. 1, 2007. (source:...
