Tess from southeastern Pennsylvania wonders about the origins of coleslaw. It comes from Dutch koolsla, meaning simply “cabbage salad.” The cole part shares its root with kale, the cauli in cauliflower, and the kohl in kohlrabi. All these words go...
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check — but the last thing you’d actually want to touch is dog water! Also, the history of the...
Following our conversation about unusual ways to answer the phone, listeners share several others: One guy answers with animal noises, another responds, “Hello, you’re on the air,” and a third simply greets callers with the “On the phone.” This is...
If you work in tech support, you might use snarky slang for problems caused by computer users themselves. There’s the acronym PEBCAK, for example, which stands for Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard. And: a lush poem about the sea inspired by...
Nancy from New Haven, Connecticut, has noticed the word liminal turning up everywhere lately and wonders if she’s imagining it. She’s not. The word’s use has risen sharply since around 2021, particularly in long-form journalism and public...
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a power differential? And: a community choir director wants a term for “the act of...
