For at least three centuries, declaring I’ll eat my hat! has indicated that the speaker is so certain they’re right that if they’re not, they’re willing to swallow their chapeau. Variations of this phrase include I’ll eat my boots, I’ll eat my cap...
Hugh in Newton, Massachusetts, noticed two very different senses of quarry, represented in John Singer Sargent’s painted stone quarries and Gustave Courbet’s The Quarry, with its fallen stag. They’re different words. The excavation sense goes back...
Dude! We’re used to hearing the word “dude” applied to guys. But increasingly, young women use the word “dude” to address each other. Grant and Martha talk about linguistic research about the meaning and uses of...
Which word is larger, humongous or gargantuan? Which refers to something larger? Grant and Martha agree with usage expert Bryan Garner that the word gargantuan is the larger of the two. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
