A baby’s first word is often a cherished milestone, but some cultures pay more attention to other firsts, like a baby’s first laugh. A fascinating new book by a linguist examines language at the beginning and the end of life. Plus, the...
Patrick in New York City is curious about the term ride or die, which describes a friend, fan, or romantic partner who is devoted to the end. The expression shows up in the mid-1990s in hip hop and the work of Tupac Shakur and The Lox, and often...
When a listener from Buffalo, New York, was a child, she was told to stop being so rutschy, or in other words, to stop being so “fidgety.” Rutsch, meaning “to squirm,” and its variants, which include rooch and roosh, come...
A second-generation Filipino-American finds that when he speaks English, his personality is firm, direct, and matter-of-fact. But when he speaks with family members in Tagalog, he feels more soft-spoken, kind, and respectful. Research shows that...
Although I don’t have as much time to read as I’d like, here are a few books I have recently read and enjoyed. Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky of the Yiddish Book...
phenomenalia n.— «What hath The Wiggles wrought? In the etymology of pop-culture phenomenalia, crystallized with the Aussie happy-feet band in the colored skivvies, born of the wistful singalongs in the original MM Club—M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U...