Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist discovers a new species of bat, then names it after a poet he admires. Also, warm memories of how a childhood...
Jelani Cobb, a writer for The New Yorker, began a lovely thread on Twitter by asking readers to talk about their first library card. That online discussion also prompted fond memories from the hosts about the majestic main branch of the Louisville...
We asked you to tell us about odd regional food names, and boy did you oblige! Martha reads some of your letters about whoopie pies, hot tamales, pretzel salad, coolers, and the frappe vs. milkshake controversy.
A Way with Words is a lively hour-long public radio show about language, on the air since 1998. Co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett delve into word histories, solve grammar disputes, give and answer quizzes, and take calls from listeners...
person of pallor n.— «Joshua and Andy were rejected because their racial group was overrepresented in the schools they wanted to attend, not because the school was closed to everyone who shared their skin color. Although they were persons...
hi mom n.— «Just before Thanksgiving, 2004, a Fox News producer with whom I’d worked a number of times in Kabul and Bagram showed up on Bagram Air Field to shoot what military PA people call “Hi Moms”—the little snippets of...