In Mandarin Chinese, if you’re “big red and big purple,” it means you’re “famous and popular.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Big Red and Big Purple” Grant another color idiom for...
What’s your choice for the word or phrase that best captures the zeitgeist of 2010? Grant shares some of his “word of the year” candidates, including refudiate, mama grizzly, starwhacker, and of course, vuvuzela. This is part of a...
paladin gun n.— «But all three men are in jobs that have great potential for putting them in harm’s way. Charles loads artillery shells in what is known as a paladin gun.» —“Iredell’s brothers in arms” by Jim...
Martha nominates another Word of the Year candidate: Joe the, as in “Joe the Plumber,” and subsequent variations on the “X the Y” formula arising from a certain drain-fixer’s quarter-hour of fame. This is part of a...
Grant shares a strange word from the fringes of English: mofussil. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mofussil” Earlier, we were talking about words that caught us up short the first time we ran across them. Here’s...
jackass v. to do something by brute force or by human power; to travel a circuitous route or itinerary. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)