Dana in Reno, Nevada, wants a word for that moment when you’re playing cards or a board game and you draw what would have been the perfect card or tile for the previous turn you played. She suggests post-perfect pickup. Might there be others...
A Minnesota listener wonders about a phrase her father always used: the juice was worth the squeeze, meaning the result was worth the effort. It’s simply a reference to squeezing a piece of fruit for drinking. The musician Lizzo suggests a...
How did the word pigeonhole come to mean “classify” or “categorize”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pigeonhole” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Daryl from Seattle. Well, hi, Daryl...
desk-traction n.— «“Desk-tractions”—a term coined by British secretarial recruitment consultancy Office Angels for the workplace distractions that cause workers to lose their focus—cause 33 per cent of employees to waste more than...