The word conclave comes from Latin con- meaning “together” and clavis meaning “key.” A gathering known as a conclave occurs in “a room that can be locked.” From the same root comes enclave, from the idea of “enclosing,” as well as clavier, a...
Some of us can remember when typing an exclamation mark required hitting four different keys: the shift key, the apostrophe, the backspace, and the period! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Typing Punctuation on Old Typewriters, The...
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving the German...
A drupe is a fleshy fruit with a pit, such as a cherry or peach. A drupelet is a smaller version, such as the little seeded parts that make up a raspberry or blackberry. It was the similarity of druplets to a smartphone’s keyboard that helped...
A calliope — that organ often found on steamboats or at circuses — ends like Penelope, not cantaloupe. The word originally comes from the Greek muse of eloquence and epic poetry, though the sound of a calliope today is associated more with carnival...
Remember the classic children’s story “Where the Wild Thongs Are”? (We didn’t think so.) That’s just one of the autocorrect horror stories that can happen with smartphone auto-mis-corrections. Martha and Grant discuss several more. This is part of a...