Can ordinary also mean “crude” or “crass”? This usage was more common in previous generations, but it is still acceptable. It’s also the source of ornery, meaning “combative” or “crotchety.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A California caller is puzzled as to why the prefix un- seems to function in two entirely different ways in the terms undone and unmarried. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Conflicting Meanings of Prefix “Un”” Hello, you have A Way...
A listener from Texas heard an NPR report from Asia in which an interpreter translated a speaker’s words into English as “a whole new ball game.” He wants to know if that’s a literal translation from an Asian language, and if so, is it a reference...
emplotment n.— «The types of stories that can be told about the French Revolution are limited to the number of modes of emplotment which the myths of the Western literary tradition sanction as appropriate ways of endowing human processes with...