The truism The cobbler’s children always go barefoot succinctly conveys the idea that people who take care of matters for others or are competent professionally may neglect the same things at home. A similar phrase in Spanish translates as “In...
Is it just desserts or just deserts? Gina from Harvest, Alabama, says that when using this phrase, she’d always pictured dessert, as in “the treat someone deserves,” but the correct term is indeed just deserts. This particular desert isn’t an arid...
Andy, a listener in Fairbanks, Alaska, has always referred to a stiff neck as a crick, so he was surprised when he heard a high school football coach from Missouri complain of a creak in his neck and justified the pronunciation with creaky. In North...
Critters, co-workers, and clothes: What do you call your favorite mixed-breed dog? There are Heinz 57 mutts and Texas brown dogs in the U.S., while in parts of the Caribbean they’re called potcakes and coconut retrievers. Plus, among firefighters...
A magnificent new book celebrates the richness and diversity of 450 years of written and spoken English in what is now the United States. It’s called The People’s Tongue, and it’s a sumptuous collection of essays, letters, poems...
If someone tells you it’s flisky or flobby outside, do you need to take an umbrella? A new book about England’s soggy climate includes 188 terms for rainy weather. Americans have their own joking names for local weather, from June Gloom in Southern...