Kim from Council Bluffs, Iowa, notes that kırmızı, the Turkish word for “red,” sounds a lot like the English word crimson. Are they related? Yes! Both derive from a word for the insect whose scientific name is Kermes vermilio. The English words...
Micah in Council Bluffs, Iowa, reports reading an account of a fistfight between 19th-century newspaper editors in which one was hit with a sockdolager, meaning “a knockout punch” or a “heavy, decisive blow,” and wonders if that’s the source of...
Bud in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says when he was fishing but no one was catching anything, an acquaintance observed, We must be holding our mouths wrong. There are several versions of that expression, including You must be holding your mouth wrong or...
A listener in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says his grandmother, born in 1899, used to say I’m feeling punk, meaning “I’m feeling ill.” The term derives from an older sense of punk meaning “rotted wood.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
ribber n.— «Barbeque is cooking all over the country, and that includes Anchorage, Alaska, which had 18 teams competing for prizes there recently.…She and her husband, Bill, are participating, again, in the Ribfest.…In addition to Texas, there are...