Martha from Grand Rapids, Ohio, wonders about the phrase having an axe to grind. She notes it once meant literally sharpening blades, but today it suggests having a chip on your shoulder or a troubling issue to resolve. The first known use of the...
Laura from Ithaca, New York, is puzzling over the lyrics to Cornell University’s fight song, “Give My Regards to Davy,” sung to the tune of George M. Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway.” The lyrics include the word...
Remember a few years ago when Amazon introduced that mysterious device called a Kindle? People worried that electronic readers would replace traditional books. Turns out the death of the hardcover was greatly exaggerated. Also, the expression...
“I don’t see nothing wrong with a little bump n’ grind,” sings the R&B star R. Kelly, referring to the hip-thrusting dance that’s all the rage with kids these days. While some people use the phrase the old bump and...
stopper n.— «Unlike many other public and private parks, Washington Square’s new granite benches do not have skate deterrents, or “stoppers”—small metal ribs attached to the stone that prevent what are known as “grinds,” in which...
Fed put n.— «One of the most reliable and predictable features of the Fed’s monetary policy is action to PREVENT SYSTEMIC FINANCIAL COLLAPSE. If this regularity of policy is what is meant by the “Fed put,” then so be it, but the term...