When is it appropriate to use the word late to describe someone who has died? Late, in this sense, is short for lately deceased. There’s no hard and fast time frame, although it’s been suggested that anywhere from five to 30 years is about right...
The a historian vs. an historian debate has a pretty straightforward answer: a historian is the correct way to write and say it. “A history” and “a historical” are the best choices, too. This is part of a complete episode...
There’s a new kind of hamburger menu that involves pixels, not pickles. It’s that little stack of horizontal lines in the corner of a webpage that you click to see more options. You might use a hamburger menu while webrooming–that...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski have a game matching people with their animal kingdom counterparts. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Animal Kingdom Counterparts Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about...
Patience, Hope, and Charity are pretty ambitious things to name your children. But what about Hate-evil, Be-courteous, or Search-the-scriptures? Or Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith? Puritan parents sometimes gave their kids so as to encourage those...
Why do spelling bees use such strange words — often foreign words that almost nobody uses? Like cymotrichous, stromuhr, Laodicean, guerdon, serrefine, and Ursprache? We answered that question in last week’s episode — it’s what happens...