Postalgia is a possible new coinage for the sorrowful, time-shifted awareness Alice in Tampa describes when she hears an old podcast interview with someone who has since died, while knowing the speaker had no idea what was coming. Words like...
The Detroit Free Press reported recently that a man invented and trying to popularize a term for nieces and nephews, although it’s clear that the word sofralia has an uphill battle. English doesn’t have a specific, fixed term for those...
The Pope has several Twitter feeds — and one of them’s entirely in Latin! But how do you adapt an ancient language to the modern world of selfies and hashtags? Plus, pit bull lovers are giving their dogs a linguistic makeover;...
The Pope tweets in Latin! As it turns out, Latin is such an efficient language that it can compress a lot into 140 characters. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pope Tweets in Latin” You’re listening to A Way with...
An older woman with a knack for finding older men to date? That’s what you call someone with excellent graydar. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Graydar” Martha, how would you describe an older woman who has a...
For a closer look at the language of the twitterati, check out Erin McKean’s recent piece in the Boston Globe. Glossaries of Twitter-related terms can be found at Twittonary, and Twictionary. We didn’t say all the coinages were clever...