What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...
Susan, a librarian in Grant County, Kentucky, says her spouse, who is from the Cincinnati area, uses the expression Please? to mean “How’s that?” or “Come again?” or “Excuse me?” to get someone to repeat a...
Remember a few years ago when Amazon introduced that mysterious device called a Kindle? People worried that electronic readers would replace traditional books. Turns out the death of the hardcover was greatly exaggerated. Also, the expression...
In Chicano English, the word barely, which traditionally means “just happened,” can also mean “almost didn’t happen,” as in “I just barely got here.” This locution apparently reflects the fact that in...
Texas ratio n.— «In banking, distress can be gauged by comparing the amounts of delinquent loans and other nonperforming assets on the books against capital and loan-loss reserves—a measure known in the industry as a “Texas ratio.” A...
zombie company n.— «A new phrase, “zombie companies,” was coined to describe those companies kept alive by banks even though they were insolvent. Some were property companies the value of whose assets had fallen by more than 30 per...