Two more expressions that characterized 2009: El Stiffo and “drive like a Cullen.” This is part of a complete episode.
How should you pronounce the word jewelry? That prompts a conversation about the transposition of letters and sounds called metathesis— not only in jewelry, but many others including realtor, foliage, larynx, and introduce. This is part of a...
Is there a name for those vocal sound we make when shrugging our shoulders or wordlessly affirming something with an “mm-hm”? This is part of a complete episode.
Many of the world’s languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like?
Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There’s a word for the practice of referring to...
In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase “all over it like a duck on a junebug,” which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who’s watched plenty of ducks...