Why would some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English words when perfectly good Spanish words for the same thing already exist? Plus, handy terms in a dictionary of the Sussex dialect from 150 years ago: Back then, a dezzick was “a...
Alisa from Memphis, Tennessee, shares a story about her mother emerging from sedation after a significant head injury. Her mom’s first words were Let’s get down to brass tacks. The phrase means “Let’s get to the point” or “Let’s get down to...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
Understanding the varieties of conversational styles can mean the difference between feeling you’re understood and being insulted. “High-involvement” speakers interrupt or talk along with someone else to signal their enthusiasm...
Twice a day the River Thames recedes, revealing a muddy shoreline. Hobbyists known as mudlarks stroll the surface searching for objects that have found their way into the river over the centuries, everything from ancient Roman jewelry to modern...
Matt from Memphis, Tennessee, reports that he had a professor who would acknowledge a complication to a task that made it more challenging by saying That makes the cheese a bit more binding, doesn’t it? The expression to make the cheese more...