A listener in Brazil wants to know about the source of the phrase keeping up with the Joneses, which refers to trying to compete with others in terms of possessions and social status. This expression was popularized by a comic strip with the same...
Denise in Webster, New Hampshire, asks about jonesing for, now ordinary slang for craving something badly. It comes from the speech of people using heroin, where jones was already current by 1962 and may go back to the 1950s. The word has done what...