Fans of vexillology, the study of flags, know that the town of Manacor on the island of Mallorca has a municipal flag that features a visual pun on its name. It’s a drawing of a hand holding a heart, inspired by the Catalan words mà, meaning...
John from Dallas, Texas, was surprised to learn that a relative who said she was on her way to plant flags at a loved one’s gravesite meant she was going to plant flowers. In addition to meaning “cloth banner,” the word flag is...
Nowadays we think of the gridiron as the football field, but in the 14th century, a gridiron was a cooking instrument with horizontal bars placed over an open flame. Since then, gridiron has lent its name to a Medieval torture device, the American...
Hello, friends — Good news! Our mini-podcast with Will Shortz is now on the “A Way with Words” site. Will created this quiz about anagrams and slang just for AWWW listeners. Give it a try: On to this week’s show: spoonerisms...
A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his bird, they invariably ask the question “Polly wanna cracker?” He wonders about the origin of that psittacine phrase, meaning parrot-like. One of the earliest uses of the phrase so far...
mail-boxing n.— «Mail theft occurs so frequently that criminals have even coined a new verb: “mail-boxing.”» —“Mail fraud raises a red flag” The Acorn (Agoura Hills, California) Apr. 17, 2008...