Hundreds of years ago, the word girl didn’t necessarily mean a female child — in the 14th and 15th centuries, it could refer to a child of either sex. Only later did its meaning become more specific. • Some people think that referring to a...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a fill-in-the-blank puzzle about famous hip-hop rhymes. For example, from Run DMC, there’s the verse: “I’m the king of rock / There is none higher / Sucker MC’s should call me _________.” This...
Spitting game, a way to describe flirting or making a romantic pitch, blends two strands of African-American English slang. Game in the sense of someone’s strategy, hustle, or practiced line goes back at least to the 1960s and may be older. By the...
Did you know reading poetry improves your prose? That includes hip-hop lyrics, too. Also, how linguist can guess where you come from based on how you speak. What do you call someone who picks the chocolate out of the trail mix...
Z-plurals are plurals that would end with an s but get a z instead, for style pointz. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Z Plurals” You know how in some hip-hop songs and albums, and maybe even on the signs for...
What is a buster? As TLC sang, “A scrub is a guy who thinks he’s fly, also known as a buster.” That is, a buster is that guy on the fringe who’s always putting on airs. The word may come from the old term gangbusters, which...