Julianne in San Diego wondered why people say desert island instead of deserted island. In that phrase, desert keeps an older sense, meaning “wild and uninhabited.” A desert island can be lush and green, like the island in The Swiss Family Robinson...
If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that collect in the...
Here’s a riddle: What’s green and smells like red paint? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Paint Riddle” Here’s a riddle I got from Eric Berlin, who is a puzzle maker. He posted this on Facebook. What’s green and smells like red...
Starting this year, Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants not only have to spell words correctly. A controversial new rule means they’ll have to answer vocabulary questions, too. Also, when it comes to reading text, do you prefer “paper” or...
If something’s not in your bailiwick, it’s not in your jurisdiction or area of control. But what exactly is a “bailiwick”? Martha explains that the two words which make up the term — bailiff and wick — have specific meanings in Middle English. A...
Why do we call our biceps guns? The slang lexicographer Jonathon Green suggests that the metaphor first pops up in baseball around the 1920s, when players referred to their throwing arms as guns. Believe it or not, the early baseball pitchers...
