Amy from Charlotte, North Carolina, reports a dispute arose when visiting her brother’s family. Is a large container for storing sugar properly called a can or a canister? The answer involves prototype theory, which in cognitive linguistics and...
Grant and Martha discuss the L-word — or two L-words, actually: liberal and libertarian. They reflect different political philosophies, so why do they look so similar? Also, is the term expat racist? A journalist argues that the word expat carries a...
Patricia in Crescent City, California, grew up hearing fussbudget, so fussbucket for a teething child sounded both wrong but oddly sensible. Fussbudget, meaning someone ill-tempered, overly critical, or full of fuss, goes back at least to 1870. The...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle of Container Clues, in which one word is inserted whole into another to create a new word. For example, if the definition is “kind of potatoes,” and the clue is “she is in mad,” what kind...
Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a word puzzle based on so-called container clues, where the answer is divided into two words, one which is found inside the other. For this game, the answers are all Greek gods. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
That little basket that your strawberries and blueberries come in? It’s called a punnet. Just so you know. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Punnet” For some reason, Martha, I’ve been coming across a lot of...