Hello from your friends at AWWW! In our latest episode, we talked about idiosyncratic rules for Scrabble, the origins of the terms "picket lines" and "hooch," plus why actors "go up" on their lines and what we mean when...
What’s the right way to pronounce gyros? Have you ever heard of feeling poozley? Called something great a blinger? Use the expression one-off to mean a “one-time thing”?
The hosts and a listener in Grand Rapids, Michigan, trade some 17th-century insults. For more, check out these references: Gargantua and English Words With Native Roots And With Greek, Latin, Or Romance Suffixes by George Albert Nicholson. This is...
A caller from San Diego, California, wonders about the proper way to pluralize analysis: is analysises ever correct? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Proper Plurals” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. My name...
Where’d we get the term swan song? A caller says this expression came up in conversation just before her retirement and she wonders about its origin. Martha reads email from listeners suggesting alternatives to the word retirement. This is...
You’ve been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you’ve used them, too. A discussion on Ask MetaFilter prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated snark. By the way, if you want a fancy...