A listener has spent the last 30 years looking for the origin of the playful phrase “you’re the berries.” This affectionate expression first appears in literature in the 1908 book Sorrows of a Showgirl, then made its way into...
What’s the origin of the expressions “word!” and “word up!”? Grant shares a theory from the book Black Talk by Geneva Smitherman. Here’s that Eighties-era song
A Green Bay, Wisconsin, caller is curious about her mother’s playful interjections. If someone said, “Well,” her mother would add, “Well, well. Three holes in the ground.” If someone started a sentence with...
walling n.— «NBC Nightly News noted that the memos provide “the fullest description yet of the techniques used by the CIA on roughly 30 detainees,” including “slapping, sleep deprivation, stress positions, nudity...
parkitecture n.— «The rustic, rock-and-timber buildings and massive lodges constructed by highly skilled artisans are now famously part of the national parks” visual style, often referred to as “parkitecture.” In parks...
headless chicken n.— «The advocates and supporters of the new party notion see this as a logical solution to the political quagmire the ruling party has found itself in following the populist rhetoric, demagoguery and vindictiveness of...