Need a synonym for “nose”? Try this handy word from a 1904 dialect dictionary: sneeze-horn. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sneeze-Horn” My new favorite term today anyway is sneeze horn. What is a sneeze...
For the first nine or ten years of her life, the 18th-century abolitionist Sojourner Truth spoke only Dutch. She later used her accent to great effect in her stirring speeches. As Jeroen Dewulf, director of Dutch Studies at University of California...
In the name of the wee man, a Scots exclamation Dorothy of Fort Worth remembers from Glasgow, is a minced oath in which the wee man refers to the devil. The same words can also simply mean a little fellow, as in a pet name for a grandson. A...
We get lots of calls and emails that take a pessimistic look at the way language changes– which reminded us that the word pessimism itself, just 100 or so years ago, was derided by the curmudgeons of old. People thought the word pessimism was...
“These days, a chicken leg is a rare dish” might sound like an odd thing to observe, but during World War II, it was among dozens of phonetically balanced sentences devised by researchers for testing cockpit transmissions and headphones...
We often hear that English is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, though, linguistic handwringing about sinking standards and sloppy speech has been going on for centuries – at least as far back as the 1300’s! And: language also...