The Oldsmobile car was introduced in 1897, and shortly thereafter people began using the term oatsmobile or hay-burning oatsmobile to mean “horse.” OATS is also an acronym for Older Adult Transportation System. This is part of a complete...
There are traditional greetings, of course, like Good afternoon and How are you? But folks who know each other well often acknowledge each other with more creative, less formal greetings. They might ask How’re your feet and ears? or How are...
In parts of Appalachia, the southern United States, and a few other places, the expression I don’t care to is understood to mean “I wouldn’t mind to.” In other words, I don’t care to may mean exactly the opposite of...
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
Judy from Huntsville, Alabama, recalls her stepmother’s words of encouragement: He that hath a horn to toot and tooteth it not, the same shall not be tooted. This faux-formal bit of advice goes back at least to the 1850s. A variation goes:...
How do you pronounce species? Is it “spee-SEES” or “spee-SHEES”? Both are considered standard, but the spee-SHEES pronunciation is far more common. This is part of a complete episode.