Grant answers a listener’s email question about the meaning of the musical phrase chicky-wah-wah. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow” Martha, we got an interesting voicemail from Misty in upstate...
Whoever wrote “The Book of Love” neglected to include the handy emoticon <3, which looks like a heart if you turn your head sideways. Grant and Martha talk about how that bit of affectionate shorthand can function as a verb, and about...
Where’d we get the term swan song? A caller says this expression came up in conversation just before her retirement and she wonders about its origin. Martha reads email from listeners suggesting alternatives to the word retirement. This is...
Martha and Grant share listeners’ emails about language changes in the mouths of train conductors and military drill instructors. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Train Conductor Language” You’re listening...
Stories From The Onion In this week’s episode, Martha and Grant discuss not-to-be-believed articles about language from the satirical newspaper The Onion, including one headlined “Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from...
Bobo, mentioned in an earlier discussion of UNC-Chapel Hill slang for something crummy or inferior, drew memories from around the country. Some people remembered bobos in the late 1970s and early 1980s as cheap or off-brand shoes, with a schoolyard...