Bekkah in Wimberly, Texas, says her grandmother would express surprise with the phrase Well, my foot! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Well, My Foot!” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Becca. I’m...
On Twitter, a linguist reports that she and her Russian husband had a humorous misunderstanding about the meaning of the word barefoot. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Barefoot Misunderstanding” One of the things...
Susan from Virginia Beach, Virginia, remembers a toe-counting game from her childhood that goes “This toe tight / this penny white / this toe tizzle / this penny wizzle.” She doesn’t recall the rest and has no idea where it came...
In the American South, you might indicate you’re going to walk instead of drive with the expression, “I’m going to take my foot in hand and walk.” A variation is “I’m going to take my foot in my hand.”...
The translation of one silly German antiwitz joke begins, “Two thick feet are crossing the street…” Another starts, “Two skyscrapers are sitting in the basement knitting…” They go downhill from there. This is part...
It’s hard enough to get a new word into the dictionary. But what happens when lawmakers get involved? New Jersey legislators passed a resolution as part of an anti-bullying campaign urging dictionary companies to adopt the word upstander. It...