A Kentucky listener and her husband wonder about the proper meaning of the word everloving. Sometimes they hear it used to express frustration, as in, “Why won’t he pass the everloving basketball?”, but other times they hear it used more positively...
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 talking earlier about nicknames for people...
A San Diego listener has a weird word on her mind: biffy (meaning “toilet”). This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Origin of Biffy” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Megan from San Diego, California. I had a question about the...
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 of pallor...
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 video of service members...
