Jacuzzi and silhouette are eponyms — that is, they derive from the names of people. An Italian immigrant to California invented the bubbly hot tub called a jacuzzi. And the word silhouette commemorates a penny-pinching treasury secretary who lasted...
Sending someone a care package shows you care, of course. But the first care packages were boxes of food and personal items for survivors of World War II. They were from the Committee for American Remittances to Europe, the acronym for which is CARE...
Book recommendations, including a collection of short stories inspired by dictionaries, and a techno-thriller for teens. Or, how about novels with an upbeat message? Publishers call this genre up lit. Plus, a clergyman ponders an arresting phrase in...
Shelby calls from Rockville, Indiana, to ask about the origin of the phrase keep your powder dry. Many people surmise it derives from words uttered by Oliver Cromwell, but there’s no recorded evidence of this. The phrase first pops up in the early...
The name Jacuzzi comes from the Jacuzzi family, seven Italian brothers who emigrated to California and opened a Berkeley machine shop in 1915. Their work included propellers and irrigation pumps, and one pump became personally important when Candido...
The shadow portrait called a silhouette takes its name from Etienne de Silhouette, a French official whose short-lived term under Louis XV was characterized by extremely unpopular austerity measures. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...