What’s your hobby? Or, rather, do you call your interests or passions hobbies at all, or does the word hobby connote something frivolous or strangely obsessive? The term hobby goes back to a nickname for a horse, which transferred to the...
When someone finds out where you’re from, do they ask if you know so-and-so? The cynics out there may refer to this as the six degrees of stupid, but even urban dwellers can admit that the answer is “yes” more often than the odds...
There are some words we just love to mispronounce, like “spatula” as “spatular,” which rhymes with “bachelor.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Intentional Mispronounciation” Do you...
Can you get away with calling a misspelled word a typo if you didn’t know how to spell it in the first place? One variety of mistake is called a performance error, where the goof is somehow related to the machine or keyboard. A competence...
In Michigan, tourists are called trunk-slammers for how often they slam their trunk unpacking and repacking over the course of a weekend trip. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Trunkslammers” Here’s a term from...
What’s the origin of the term listless? Does it mean you can’t find the piece of paper with the groceries you need? No. Listless shares a root with the English word lust. In its most literal sense, listless means “without...