How do languages change and grow? Does every language acquire new words in the same way? Martha and Grant focus on how that process happens in English and Spanish. Plus, the stories behind the Spanish word gringo and the old instruction to...
There’s a proverb that goes “beloved children have many names.” At least, that’s true when it comes to the names we give our pets. “Fluffy” becomes “Fluffers” becomes “FluffFace” becomes...
In our online discussion about the variety of things we call our pets, one woman shares how her pet’s name went from Lucy to Queen of the Universe. Sounds like a perfectly natural progression to us! This is part of a complete episode.
During a discussion in our Facebook group, a listener shares that her cat’s name evolved from Poor Nameless Cat to PNC to Pansy. This is part of a complete episode.
To transmit information during wartime, various industries used to encode their messages letter by letter with an elaborate system–a primitive version of today’s digital encryption. Grant breaks down some of those secret codes, and...
A chance encounter with University of California San Diego professor of history Mark Hanna, author of Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740, leads to a discussion of how the saying “arrr!” came to be associated with...