A listener from Richmond, Virginia, remembers an old game called buckeye that consists of metaphorically pulling someone’s leg, then calling Buckeye! and tugging one’s own lower eyelid. Martha suggests that it may be related to a 19th-century use of...
Does the English expression “falling in love” derive from the biblical story of Rebekah and Isaac? A caller thinks so. The hosts don’t think so. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of “Falling In Love”” Hello, you have A Way...
freedom of the bathroom n.— «According to prolific writer Isaac Asimov, when two people share two bathrooms, each has “freedom of the bathroom.” This freedom entails using the resource whenever, for however long, and for whatever purpose one...
mezangelle n.— «The syntactical notation is taken from wildcards and regular expressions in programming languages and Unix command line interpreters forming an archetypical world. In mez’s own language “mezangelle,” it is called “Arch.E.typal...
turf toe n.— «With Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce departing the Titans game early with a hyperextended left big toe—more commonly known as turf toe—St. Louis now is going to lean more heavily on Kevin Curtis.» —“Auburn rookie duo making it look...
jump-out squad n.— «U.S. District Court Gerhard A. Gesell agreed to seal parts of the 11-page typewritten manual that contained specific instructions, such as how many uniformed officers should be present as a backup and how many officers should be...
