In Britain, the word twoc means “car theft,” and to go twocking means “to go joyriding in a stolen car.” It’s police slang derived from the acronym for the phrase Taking Without Owner’s Consent or TWOC. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
How is a popular tune like a butterfly? Quiz Guy John Chaneski says the answer to this riddle involves an adjective ending in the letter Y. So do all the other answers in this week’s puzzle. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A...
Snarky refers to someone or something “irritable,” “sharply critical,” or “ill-tempered.” It goes back to a 19th-century word meaning “to snort.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Snarky” Hello, you have A Way with...
The Phantom Tollbooth, the beloved children’s book by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, turns 50 this year. There are two new 50th anniversary editions of the book. As Adam Gopnik notes in a New Yorker magazine article, the book is the...
What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like motel from motor and hotel? A listener says his term for them is “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup words,” after the old commercial: “You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut...
A reader of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential thinks the book is snarky—but what does snarky really mean? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Snarky, Narky, and the Nose-in-the-Air Family of Sn-Words” Hi, you have A Way with...
