A flat tire is a slang term for the result of stepping on someone’s heel so that their shoe comes loose. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““Flat Tire” Means Stepping on Someone’s Heel and Loosening Their Shoe” Did you...
Since the 1950’s, the term think tank has meant “a research institute.” But even earlier than that, going as far back as the 1880’s, think tank referred “a person’s mind.” Another slang term for one’s...
A Greencastle, Indiana, caller is bothered when his colleagues talk about servicing a customer–and with good reason. Servicing a client has long been associated with prostitution. Serving a client is a better phrase. This is part of a complete...
In Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, Dan Lyons writes about slang he heard during his time working at a hot new startup. If someone was fired, that person was described as having graduated, and the word delight and the neologism...
The slang term stroppy is an adjective meaning “annoying” or “difficult to deal with.” It might be related to the similarly unpleasant word, obstreperous. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Stroppy Means Annoying or Hard to...
Nathan from Abilene, Texas, asked for a dolly at a London trade-show venue and got blank looks until he described the device, which the workers called a trolley. Names for these wheeled haulers vary even in the United States: for some people, a...