A woman in Omaha, Nebraska, wonders about the difference between the adjectives homey and homely. In the UK, the word homely is still a positive term that means cozy, whereas in the US it usually means “unattractive” or “plain...
A husband and wife have a heated dispute. The topic? Whether thaw and unthaw mean the same thing. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Thaw vs. Unthaw” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Willie calling from...
We spoke on the show not long ago about yuppies and dinks, but neglected to mention silks: households with a single income and lots of kids. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Yuppies, Dinks, and Silks” We were talking on...
It might be the grooviest new holiday since Burning Man: Hippie Christmas is the annual festivity surrounding the end of the college school year, when students leave perfectly good clothing and household goods by the curb or the dumpster because...
You dream of writing the great American novel, but to make ends meet, you spend your days writing boring corporate reports. There’s a difference between writing for love and writing for a living — or is there? Does a heyday have anything to do...
Is it wrong to refer to children as kids? One discerning mother, when asked about her kids, always replied, “I don’t raise goats, but my children are fine.” Grant explains that as early as the 1600s, the word kids had popped up to...