The language and melodies of military marching songs connect grown children with their parents who served, as do parents’ love letters from World War II. Plus, “running a sandy” describes an awkward love triangle and Northern Spy is a kind of apple...
A caller from San Antonio, Texas, remembers a song her father, a World War II vet, used to sing: “Around the corner and under a tree / A sergeant major proposed to me / Who would marry you? I would like to know / For every time I look at your face...
What’s the correct term for the male lover of a married woman? The hosts share suggestions from listeners, including paramour and sancho. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sancho” When we took the call about what to call a woman’s...
We all misspeak from time to time, but how about when we mangle words on purpose? Do you ever say fambly instead of family, perazackly for exactly, or coinkydink for coincidence? When Grant recently wrote a newspaper column about saying things wrong...
Welcome to the A Way with Words newsletter, where "language" is our middle name. "Dangerous" was taken. This weekend we told you what a "trailer queen" and a "soup spitter" are, and we took a punny quiz about...
Hello, everybody, it’s another newsletter from A Way with Words. Over the weekend, our latest episode concentrated on the ever-popular topic of words people mispronounce on purpose, the pronunciation of “beaux arts,” and the history of the term...