Grant responds to a voicemail from Doug in Louisville, Kentucky, who asks whether our phone’s autocomplete function will affect the way we talk and write. The answer is yes, partly because of Markov chains, or models describing a sequence of...
Listeners write in with suggestions for a young caller’s request for a single term to describe someone in a state of nervous anticipation. They propose aflutter, atwitter, nervousited, happrehensive, and a noun form, antrepidation. This is...
Steve from Louisville, Kentucky, asks about pipe down, meaning “shush,” and his playful variation pipe up, which he uses with his child instead of phrases like “man up.” The expression pipe down comes from nautical practice: a ship’s bosun (or...
Jane in Monticello, Florida, asks about nairn in sentences such as I don’t want nairn, meaning “I don’t want any.” The word is usually spelled nairn and is a contraction of never a one, and related to nary. It has been used for hundreds of years...
Cities have nicknames as well, including “Sacratomato” and “Lousyville.” Do you have a better city nickname? Let’s hear it. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “City Nicknames” Grant, we were...
stick n.— «“The Stick”—the physical bartop itself. “Get behind the stick” means its time for a barkeep to go to work.» —“Booze: Bar Lingo” by Mark Chasteen Velocity Weekly (Louisville, Kentucky) Aug. 12...