Sharing a secret language. Did you ever speak in gibberish with a childhood pal, adding extra syllables to words so the adults couldn’t understand what you were saying? Such wordplay isn’t just for kids—and it’s not just limited to...
Tuque, a primarily Canadian name for a warm knit hat, is related to the French word toque, the tall white hat that chefs wear. Take our Great Knitted Hat Survey and tell us what you call them. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
What do you call the dirty frozen solid pack of brown snow that gets jammed in the wheel of a car in certain parts of the world during winter? Try crud, fenderbergs, carnacles, snow goblins, tire turds, or chunkers. This is part of a complete...
It’s commonly heard these days that English is going to hell in a handbasket, but it’s worth remembering that we’ve always said things like this. A hundred years ago, as telephones became more and more common, sticklers railed against...
The term “so long,” meaning “goodbye,” does not come from the Arabic word salaam. Its origin is German. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “So Long!” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, it’s...
Writers and where they do their best creative work. A new book on Geoffrey Chaucer describes the dark, cramped, smelly room where he wrote his early work. Which raises the question: What kind of space do you need to produce your best writing...