Irv in Montreal, Canada, says that in his city, English speakers will typically use the word messages where others might use errands, as in I’m going to do some messages. The oldest meaning of the word errand is “message,” “news,” or “tidings.” In...
A listener shares a story on our Facebook group about how a child’s misunderstanding illustrates the power of metaphor. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cows in the Ocean” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about...
Why do some people pronounce the word sandwich as SANG-wich or SAM-mitch or SAM-widge? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sangwich, Sammitch, and Samwidge” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello, this is Eric Apayes. I’m calling...
You’uns, a dialectal form of the second-person plural, generally means “you and your kin.” The term is heard in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and much of the South, reflecting migration patterns of immigrants from the British Isles. It’s also...
Martha Barnette gets a call from Martha Barnett, her Canadian tocaya who’s missing an “e” at the end of her last name. On the Global News website, you can see that the name Martha, perhaps now an anomaly in Canada, peaked in popularity around the...
A physician wants to know: Is it politically correct to use the phrase illegal alien? The Society of Professional Journalists have decided, collectively, to use illegal immigrant but even words like illegal or undocumented can often be inaccurate...
