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...
Chris in Allen, Texas, has debated a friend for 37 years about whether humongous or gargantuan refers to something larger. Usage expert Bryan Garner, who was asked the same question on Twitter, sides with gargantuan. The older word looks back to the...
