Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler?
Consuegro is the Spanish word Kathy from Imperial Beach misses from English when she wants to talk about the parents of her child’s spouse. English has the broad term in-laws, but no common, tidy word for that particular relationship between the two...
“It’s raining, it’s pouring.” But what exactly is the “it” that’s doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the weather...
You’ve just read a terrific paperback novel. Would you feel any differently about it if you’d the same words on the glowing screen of an electronic book? Martha and Grant discuss the social and psychological implications of books that...
What is janky? A Chattanooga caller uses it describe something inferior or bad. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of “Janky”” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how you doing? Hi, great...
A listener calls from in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to say that in her native Spanish, she can use several different words for love to denote a whole range of feelings, depending on how close she is to the other person. She’s frustrated that...