Edward in Atlanta, Georgia, asks about the origin and uses of blah, blah, blah, the sing-song stand-in for omitted or tiresome talk. A single blah can mean dull or listless, as in “feeling blah,” while repeated blahs often replace words a speaker...
Bhavika in San Diego, California, was intrigued to hear an English speaker use the phrase too clever by half meaning “a little too smart for one’s own good” or “more clever than prudent.” There’s a similar phrase...
“Ix-nay on the ocolate-chay in the upboard-cay” is how you’d say “nix on the chocolate in the cupboard” in pig Latin. English speakers have a long history of inserting syllables or rearranging syllables in a word to...
For English speakers of a certain age, film at 11 is a slang phrase means “You’ll hear the details later.” It’s a reference to the days before 24-hour cable news, when newscasters would read headlines during the day promoting...
In a futile situation, English speakers might say that we’re spinning our wheels. The French have a phrase for the same situation that translates as “pedal in sauerkraut.” The Illustrated Book of Sayings collects similarly colorful...
Where does the accent fall in the word Caribbean? Most English speakers stress the second syllable, not the third. The word derives from the name of the Caribs, also the source of the word cannibal. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...