“Nuke the fridge”? We kick off our series on contenders for 2008’s “Word of the Year” with a look at this new slang phrase.
It's time again for a newsletter from A Way with Words, public radio's program about words, language, and how we use them. This past weekend we plundered the Australian National Dictionary, which is now available in full online, by sharing...
In this episode, a listener says his friend Harold likes to do social phoning while driving, so he’s invented a term for mindless calling while in the car. And no, it’s not “car-pe diem.” Also, Martha and Grant also discuss...
Death of the Typewriter Ding! In this week’s episode, Mark Twain would be pleased. Reports that it’s the end of the line for the typewriter have been greatly exaggerated. Well, slightly anyway: it’s not the horseless carriage...
suspense list n.— «Texas has over 12.6 million voters as of January 2008. 1.8 million of that total are on what is known as a “suspense list.” The suspense list is generated when registrars mail out a certificate every two...
Let’s see… there’s National Cheese Day on January 20, and of course National Iguana Awareness Day on September 8. So it’s only fitting that good grammar should get a day of its own, too. National Grammar Day has been...