Oh, that gives me agita! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she’s known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for “upset” and its likely...
The cleverly named “Buy n Large” corporation in the movie Wall-E has a caller wondering why we say use the phrase “by and large” to mean “generally speaking.” It has its origins on the high seas. This is part of a...
frailing n.— «Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather...
A caller who grew up with 10 brothers and sisters recalls that whenever sibling squabbles erupted, her parents would intervene with a cheery, “Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?” The children were expected to respond with:...
Hello, guys and dolls--it's another newsletter from A Way with Words. We aired an episode this past weekend in which we talked about the footwear known as "go-aheads," what part of the body is "possible,"...
“Full fathom five thy father lies…” When the Bard wrote these immortal words, he was talking about the word fathom as a measure of distance. But a Chicago caller can’t quite fathom the meaning of the verb “to fathom...