“What has a head like a cat, feet like a cat, a tail like a cat, but isn’t a cat?” Answer: a kitten! A 1948 children’s joke book has lots of these to share with kids. Plus: an easy explanation for the difference between...
Alex in Amarillo, Texas, says he often hears speakers dropping the sound of the first r in the word forward, sounding like foward or fuhward. It’s what linguists call dissimilation, where, when duplicate consonants are not far apart in a...
gayby n.— «In 1994, Daddy Dave and Daddy Bob prepared 5-year-old Elizabeth Wall for the first day of kindergarten in New Jersey, meeting with the principal in advance to ease her transition as the daughter of two gay men. […] Wall...
pooled spray n.— Note: Describes the same event as this citation for spray. «Mr Obama’s team, however, said that there never had been plans for anything but only a pooled spray, in which a handful of journalists pose questions in a more...
stilettotarsal n.— «The cosmetic procedure, familiar the world over as a quick fix injection to iron out wrinkles, is now being employed as a cure for a condition dubbed “stilettotarsal,” when pain hits the soft tissue on the...
foot filler n.— «The cosmetic procedure, familiar the world over as a quick fix injection to iron out wrinkles, is now being employed as a cure for a condition dubbed “stilettotarsal,” when pain hits the soft tissue on the...