Hey-o! It's another newsletter from A Way with Words This past weekend's show was completely new. We tackled the expression "put a snap on the grouch bag," how to pronounce "patronize," and the rise of the German word...
The German word über has found a place in American English. A New Jersey man says he and his colleagues find it to be more versatile than a Swiss Army knife, as in, “He is uber in the middle of that situation,” “That was an uber...
Here’s another newsletter from A Way with Words. On this past weekend’s show we mused over the idea of reading books on electronic devices, talked about “tow-headed,” and got to the German origins of “going to Buxtehude...
Germaican n.— «In 1876 this village was inhabited by 100 German immigrants who were promised free passage, land and persuaded to settle and develop the plantations. The hardship that followed left just a few remaining, and their...
T-patcher n.— «With lethal German 88mm artillery shells raining down, Panzer tanks attacked the 36th’s flanks. The T-patchers, as they were called (their insignia was a “T” on an arrowhead patch), literally engaged in “hand-to-tank”...
A Brazilian has been researching why actors use the unlikely expression “break a leg” to wish each other well before going on stage. He suspects it’s a borrowing of a German phrase that means, “May you break your neck and...