The expression “to a T” comes from a shortening of tittle, a word meaning a little of something. The word tittle even shows up in the bible. There’s also an idiom “to the teeth,” as in dressed to the teeth, or fully armored-up. This is part of a...
Is the term “Oriental” offensive? Where do we get the phrase “not one iota”? Why do we tell someone to “take a gander”? And who coined the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
Jeff from Columbus, Indiana, asks about his father’s use of the expression “not one iota” to mean “not one bit.” An iota is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet, and ancient Greek speakers used the word for something exceedingly tiny. The...