A caller named Todd says that when people meet him for the first time, they sometimes call him Scott, even if he’s wearing a nametag with his real name on it. It’s happened too many times to be a coincidence, he says, and wonders if...
“You little snickelfritz!” An Indiana man says his mother used to call him that when she meant “You little rascal!” Although the term’s meaning has changed over time, its original meaning was a bit naughty. This is part...
It’s likely America’s greatest linguistic export: O.K. A caller raised in the Philippines is curious about its origin. The hosts give him an answer, and also point out a familiar word in English that derives from the caller’s...
Why do we describe the sudden abandonment of someone as “throwing him under the bus”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Thrown Under the Bus” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, I’m Sean, and...
Dean, a Navy veteran from Lake Bay, Washington, remembers being called a cumshaw artist in Vietnam for “permanently borrowing” whatever his unit needed, from refrigerator regulators to gasoline to whiskey for a party. The term cumshaw...
If a dictator dictates, and an aviator aviates, then does a commentator “commentate”? A caller complains that this last word gives him the willies. Does an alligator alligate? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why...