Animals leave their footprints in several English words, including chatoyant, or “shimmering like a cat’s eyes” and sleuth, which is short for sleuth-hound, a kind of bloodhound used for sniffing out prey. Pets have also inspired...
If you’ve accomplished something, go ahead and rest on your laurels. Martha traces this idiom back to Ancient Greece, where victors were crowned with a wreath of bay leaves from the bay laurel tree. In the 16th Century, to retire on...
The grumpy agent who writes the blog SlushPile Hell received a submission stating, “I have attached a copy of a letter I recently sent to Oprah about my book. She ends her show in September 2011, which leaves little time to select an agent...
To keep something at bay means to maintain a safe distance from it. But does this expression derive from an old practice of using bay leaves to ward off pestilence? This is part of a complete episode.
kilowatt laundering n.— «Electricity sold by CEZ of the Czech Republic to Romania for 40 euros per MW was later resold by electricity traders in the Greek stock market for 80 euros to 90 per MW. The practice is known as ‘kilowatt...
Greg Pliska’s quiz about terms from football, curling, and other sports leaves Martha and Grant winded but wanting more. This is part of a complete episode.