The English word rhinestone is a loan translation of French caillou du Rhin, or literally “Rhine pebble,” because these sparkly fake gems were first cut from rock crystal found in the Rhine River. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Everyone knows you don’t start a sentence with but. But why? Also, how voice recognition technology is changing the way we think and write and what English sounds like to foreigners. Plus, where cockamamie comes from, oddly translated movie titles...
Among some Spanish speakers, the slang phrase sacapuntas en huevos refers to someone so stubbornly persistent, they could sharpen an egg. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sharpen an Egg” We talked about sacapuntas, you remember...
Kids often imitate French or Chinese speakers without knowing the language. But have you ever tried to imitate the English language or speak fake English? There are lots of YouTube videos that give an idea of what English sounds like to native...
Grant and Martha share some of their favorite tweets from Fake AP Stylebook, the Twitter feed that tweaks journalistic style and tropes, such as “Do not change weight of gorilla in phrase, ‘800-lb gorilla in the room.’ Correct weight is 800 lbs. DO...
A Woodbridge, Connecticut, caller tells the story of coming across the following definition for jungftak in Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary (1943): “n. A Persian bird, the male of which had only one wing, on the right side, and the female...