Steven from San Antonio, Texas, seeks a word that means “the opposite of trauma.” Perhaps eustress, literally “good stress”? Or harmonization? Placid? Is there a better term for this? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “What Word...
Seven-year-old Everett from Tallahassee, Florida, wants to know why we refer to a scrape or other minor injury as a boo-boo. Such reduplication of words and syllables is common in baby talk used to soothe a child. Also, boo-boo sounds a little like...
We’ve spoken before about “It’ll be better when you’re married,” often used to console someone who just had a small scrape or cut. A Chicago-area listener wrote us to say that in such cases, her mom’s phrase was “Quick, get a spoon!” This is part of...
rinkrash n.— «It’s also a violent sport. The Roller Warriors’ website features the “Injury Archive,” a photo gallery of grotesque bruises, facial stitches, knee-surgery images and floor burns—commonly known as rinkrash.» —“All-female roller derby...
monkey muscle n.— «The symptoms you describe are most likely the result of a tear in the one of the two heads of the main calf muscle—the gastrocnemius. This is also known as a “torn monkey muscle” injury, for reasons I don’t quite understand...
get off n.— «In a practice run on Saturday, Dungey had what the motocross publicists euphemistically refer to as a “get off.”I got sideways going over a jump and remember thinking, “This isn’t going to be good’” he said. “I went over the top and...