While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...
Kathy from Wichita, Kansas, says her mother was a practical joker who’d laugh off her pranks by saying That’s just the kind of hairpin I am, which means “That’s just the way I am.” The phrase goes back at least to 1874. In his 1889 volume...
Classical musicians have their own workplace slang: a clam is a missed note, a football is a whole note, hairpins are crescendo and decrescendo marks, and an axe can be any instrument, not just a guitar. Listener Kyle also offered bisectional for...