Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words. This one's full of soda-fountain goodness! Let's just say right out of the gate that, judging by the emails and phone calls, the top call for this past weekend's show was the one...
Grant has the latest headlines from the world of language, including the debate over the name of the home of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Is Beijing pronounced bay-JING or bay-ZHING? Also, a recent court decision concerning an offense that’s...
When is a mango not a mango? Why, when it’s a bell pepper, of course! An Indiana listener says she and her Kentucky in-laws have entirely different names for this vegetable. She wants to know why, so we help her sort it out.
London loop n.— Note: ICE is a futures exchange. «The proposals are intended to stop traders from evading position limits in the US by trading on ICE—a method known as the “London loop.”» —“Oil traders fear for London’s...
liver-versary n.— «She was given a new lease on life when she became one of the first patients in London to receive a liver transplant.…Fisher recently marked the 25th anniversary of her transplant —”liver-versary,” as...
thrashing n.— Note: Perhaps related to the British noun “thrash,” which means “a party.” «Evidence gathered from the social networking site led proctors at the university to collect five times as much money this...