What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
Rose works at a trailer shop south central Pennsylvania and often hears her co-workers adding the element -couple to a round number to indicate an indefinite amount, such as “bring me twenty-couple screws,” in the same way that others...
Say you’re introducing someone to a married heterosexual couple, and both members of the couple are physicians. What titles should you use? “This is Dr. and Dr. Jones”? Dr. and Mrs.? What if one holds Ph.D.? What if both hold...
A psychotherapist in Burlington, Vermont, observes that couples in counseling together ask each other questions that are actually veiled criticisms. Such indirect communication was the topic of a spirited conversation on Metafilter. Much has been...
Does the term a couple mean “two and only two items”? Nope. Plenty of folks use couple to mean “a small but indefinite” quantity, and to insist otherwise is pure peevishness. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A married couple has invented a lovely word to mean “I sympathize” that doesn’t sound quite so stilted. They simply say, salma. It’s an example of the private language couples develop. This is part of a complete episode...