Lisa in Wilmington, North Carolina, grew up hearing her grandmother warn, “We’re not going to have any who struck John in this house,” meaning stop the cutting up and settle down. Traditionally, who struck John refers to a pointless argument over...
Duncan from Brooklyn, New York, says his friends say dumb brick, where dumb works as an intensifier and brick means “very cold.” The adverbial dumb, as in dumb rich or dumb cold, has been documented since the 1700s and appears to have developed as a...
Liz from San Antonio, Texas, has noticed going west in World War I-era poems, letters, and accounts, usually meaning to die or be killed in combat. The euphemism go west is older than the war and is especially associated with writing from Scotland...
Step-ins, pull-ons, and drawers are all euphemistic terms for underwear. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Euphemisms for Underwear” Hello, welcome to A Way with Words. Hey, hey, how are you? Excellent, who are we...
Ellen in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, wonders about the origin of the exclamation jeezum pete! It’s a minced oath — that is, a way of avoiding saying “Jesus Christ!” most likely derived by combining it with St. Pete. There are dozens...
In The Prodigal Tongue, linguist Lynne Murphy recounts the story of a friend from the US who was confused when her physician inquired about her waterworks. In Britain, that’s a slang term for the urinary tract, whereas in the US, it’s slang for...