Why are some American place names pronounced differently than the famous place they were named after? Why is Cairo, Ill., pronounced “KAY-roh”? Why do Midwesterners pronounce Versailles as “Ver-SALES” and the New Madrid Fault...
Some foreign idioms involving color have been adopted whole into English. A case in point: French bête noire. Literally, it means “black beast,” and it’s used figuratively now in English to mean anything particularly disliked or...
When speakers of foreign languages try to adapt their own idioms into English, the results can be poetic, if not downright puzzling. A Dallas listener shares some favorite examples from his Italian-born wife, including “I can put my hand to...
In an earlier episode, we discussed linguistic false friends, those words in foreign languages that look like familiar English words, but mean something quite different. Martha reads an email response from a listener who learned the hard way that in...
Fbar n.— «Under the plan, according to the person briefed on the issue, the I.R.S. will cut an onerous penalty for not filing a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account, known as an Fbar—something offshore tax evaders have not done...
petrodictator n.— «If oil were $50 a barrel, the $50 tax needed to achieve the price floor would go to America’s government for fuel energy programs, not to foreign “petrodictators,” as he calls them.» —“Say you want a...