A woman who grew up in India says she was baffled when someone with aching feet complained, “My dogs are barking.” The answer may lie in a jocular rhyme. This is part of a complete episode.
Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words! This week's minicast, available only online, is about the Yiddish expression "hak mir nisht ken tshaynik." It's what you say to somebody who's annoying you with a lot of talk...
sang n.— «Since the native ginseng plant, a protected species, is extremely valuable in some Eastern quarters, its demand has given rise to poaching—hunters digging the roots illegally prior to the state-sanctioned harvest season...
Also speaking of animals, an immigrant from India recounts his confusion the first time he heard the expression “I’m going to go see a man about a horse.” How in did that become a euphemism for “I’m going to go to the...
stocker n.— «“Special situations” is a relatively new concept in India, but UK’s most successful fund in the past 26 years is the Fidelity Special Situations Fund. Its fund manager Anthony Bolton has been labelled “Britain’s...
cooking accident
n.— «“Cooking accident” has long been a euphemism for dowry killing in India.» —“Kurdistan’s Fatal Flames” by Kevin Peraino Newsweek Sept. 18, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)