Christiane from Brunswick, Germany, says her family uses the phrase um den Pudding gehen or “to walk around the pudding,” a phrase that refers to taking a stroll around the block or neighborhood. This idiom is apparently unique to northern and...
Lael in Heartland, Iowa, wonders how tartar sauce got its name. The answer is a complicated etymological story that combines cream of tartar, which derives from the Latin tartarum, or a residue left on the inside of wine casks, and the story of the...
A caller in Hamburg, Germany, wants to know where we got the term laundry list. Grant explains that it derives from a time when people of a certain class sent their laundry out to be cleaned. It’s usually associated with a collection of things...