Margaret from Denton, Texas, says that during her many years in northern New Mexico she noticed that residents with Latino roots often used the phrase landed up instead of ended up, and get down off the car rather than get out of the car. The latter...
Margo from Denton, Texas, says when the weather was really cold, her Kentucky-born grandmother would say it was cold as agga forti. The term aggie forti refers to something really strong, particularly a strong drink. That expression and the variants...
Gary in Denton, Texas, is looking for a word for the pout that precedes a baby’s wail. The Germans have a word for that: schippchen, which means “little shovel” and refers to the shape of that wet, protruding lower lip. This is part of a complete...
If you tell someone you have a set of twins, does that mean you have two kids or four kids? It depends on the meaning of the word set. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Set of Twins” Hi, you have A Way with Words. This is Bill...
Linguistic freezes, also known as binomials or irreversible pairs, are words that tend to appear in a certain order, such as now and then, black and white, or spaghetti and meatballs. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Linguistic...
A Denton, Texas, caller wonders: Are politicians increasingly starting sentences with the phrase “Now, look…”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Now, Look…” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Good morning. Good morning. Who’s this? This...
