Taglinguistic heirloom

Flee Fly Flo Camp Song

Flee Fly Flo is a camp song, and like other songs passed along orally, it has lots of variations, and often includes rhythmic hand-clapping. In her book Camp Songs, Folk Songs, Patricia Averill suggests the roots of this camp favorite may be in scat...

Sunday week

If someone’s coming to town Sunday week, when exactly should you expect them? This Scots-Irish term means β€œa week after the coming day mentioned.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of β€œSunday week” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi...

Boughten

Is boughten a past tense form of to buy? Grant gives his blessing to its use in informal conversation, but when it comes to formal writing, the word you want is bought. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of β€œBoughten” Hello, you have A...

Good Leather

A Wyoming native asks about the origin of her father’s term of approbation, good leather. Grant thinks it might be from baseball, where good leather means β€œgood fielding with a leather ball in a leather glove.” This is part of a complete episode...