When you hear the F-word in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the F-word of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? Grant recommends a book on the...
Oh, that gives me agita! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she’s known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for “upset” and its likely...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: “My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.” (Keep saying it over and over until you hear...
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...
Oyez, oyez! All rise for another newsletter from "A Way with Words"! We took another listen to an episode concerning "orient" vs. "orientate," "sockdologizing," and "my dogs are barking." Hear it...
DADT n.— «One factor that makes her case interesting is that Witt never openly violated the tangled “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, or “DADT” as it is known. She was outed when an anonymous tipster told Air Force...
