Pam in New York City wonders if bidding someone farewell with toodle-oo or toodle-loo derives from the French expression à tout à l’heure, “see you soon.” The French connection is plausible, but the English form appears earlier than World War II...
Jejune, meaning insipid or superficial, comes from the Latin jejunus, meaning empty. The same root gives us jejunum, the part of the small intestine that is usually empty when autopsied. The same idea of emptiness is reflected in the related French...
The Spanish word for straw is paja. In Italian, it’s paglia, which also gives us the name of the opera Il Pagliacci, the Italian word for clowns. In the past, clown costumes were made of the same fabric used to cover straw mattresses. This is...
Paul in South Bend, Indiana, notes that the French equivalent of the phrase have other fish to fry, meaning to have other things to do, is avoir d’autre chats a fouetter, or literally, to have other cats to whip. In Italian, a similarly creepy...
Dennis in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, recalls that his Spanish-speaking mother used to speak frankly with him or rebuke him using the phrase “No tengo pelo en mi lengua,” meaning “I have no hair on my tongue.” The same idea appears...
Why is the ch pronounced differently in spinach and stomach? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Differing “ch” in “Spinach” and “Stomach”” Hi there, you have A Way with Words. Hi...