There’s a frisson you get when you meet a word for the first time—feeling pleasantly stumped in between wondering, “What the heck does that mean?” and hurrying off to find out. Martha and Grant talk about some terms that had just...
Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say “no,” your child hears “maybe,” and if you say “maybe,” she hears “ask again and again,” and “yes” is...
What does the expression egg on have to do with chickens? Nothing, actually. Martha explains why, and tells the story of how the term curate’s egg came to mean “something with both good and bad characteristics.”
clande adj.—Gloss: An abbreviation of “clandestine.” «The word clande is a common slang term used to describe the guy or chick on the side. Clande comes from the word clandestine meaning the two might both be in other...
Quiz Guy Greg Pliska drops in with a word game called “False Opposites.” They’re pairs of words whose prefixes, suffixes, and other elements make them appear to be opposites, even though they’re not. For example, what seeming...
To some folks, they’re thermals. To others, they’re long underwear. And some folks call them long johns. Are these warm undergarments named after some guy called John? This is part of a complete episode.