The word hipster might seem recent, but it actually originated in the 1930s when it referred to jazz aficionados who were in the know about the best nightclubs and cool music. Speaking of music, a professional musician reports that it’s sometimes...
Jerry in Lutherville, Maryland, was reading a 2018 biography of Nelson Algren, author of The Man with the Golden Arm, that mentions a group in the 1930s that were described as hipsters or hepsters. In the 1930s, the word hipster applied to a jazz...
Betamax players and hair metal bands may be trapped in the 1980’s, but the term yuppie, meaning young urban professional, is alive and well. Dink, meaning dual income, no kids, is also worth throwing around in a marketing presentation. This is part...
Get out your skinny jeans and pass the PBR! Martha and Grant discuss the definition of the word hipster. Also, what happens when you pull a brodie? And why do we describe something cheap or poorly made as cheesy? Also, sawbucks, shoestring budgets...
Hey, will you look at that! It’s the new A Way with Words website! We’ve made it easier to search, switched to a new way of playing shows in the browser, updated it to look much better on smartphones and tablets, overhauled the episode pages...
What is a hipster? Is it an insult to call someone a hipster, even if they’re, well, a hipster? Do hipsters identify themselves as hipsters? Grant traces the label from 1960s counterculture to today’s skinny-jeaned Brooklyn paradox. This is part of...