A La Mesa, California, woman thinks the term from 1970s films, jive turkey, deserves reviving. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jive Turkey” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Oh, hi, Martha. This is Kathy from La Mesa...
A Texas listener came across the word Boche in a biography of a French statesman, and wants to know: What does it mean, exactly?
The hosts offer some more full-deckisms, such as “He doesn’t have all his cornflakes in one box” and “She thought she couldn’t use her AM radio in the evening.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
The hosts and a listener in Grand Rapids, Michigan, trade some 17th-century insults. For more, check out these references: Gargantua and English Words With Native Roots And With Greek, Latin, Or Romance Suffixes by George Albert Nicholson. This is...
“You knucklehead!” Where’d we get an epithet like that? Grant tells the story about the wartime cartoon that helped popularize the term. Check out the adventures of R.F. Knucklehead in LIFE magazine. More about cartoons used for...
What do English bowmen, the French, and lopped-off digits have to do with the classic middle-finger insult? Absolutely nothing. A San Diego truck driver wonders about the true origin of the one-finger salute. There’s a great debunking of the...