Robin in Jacksonville, Florida, grew up using the word unthaw as in unthaw the frozen hamburger until someone told her that she should instead simply say thaw to mean “allow something frozen to come to room temperature.” Is it wrong to say unthaw...
Scratching an itch is far more common than itching a scratch. Both are grammatically correct, but the latter is considered informal. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Scratching an Itch” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello there...
There’s a new kind of hamburger menu that involves pixels, not pickles. It’s that little stack of horizontal lines in the corner of a webpage that you click to see more options. You might use a hamburger menu while webrooming–that is, when you go...
Just so you know, there are more exciting ways to spell yes. Yass, yiss, and other variants including more S’s are used both in speech and informal writing to convey added enthusiasm and personality. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that collect in the...
Trace, used for locales like the Natchez Trace, refers to an informal road, like a deer trail or an Indian trail. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Geographic Term Trace” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is...