Dean from Chadron, Nebraska, notes that people in his area use the term visit to mean “talk with” or “converse,” as in We sat on the porch swing visiting. This usage originated in the American South as far back as the 1860s...
In the 1970s, physicists predicted the discovery of two quarks called T and B for top and bottom. Some poetically-minded physicists argued that the T and B quarks should instead be called truth and beauty, but the terms top and bottom eventually won...
A Houston, Texas, woman wants to know, “Why are there so many different dictionaries?” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why Are There So Many Dictionaries?” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, this is...
How do you pronounce the word potable, which means drinkable? A woman in the Navy stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, says most of her fellow sailors pronounce it with a short o, but she pronounces it with a long o. The word derives from Latin potare...
The former student of a Spanish teacher in Valdosta, Georgia, will soon give birth in her homeland, the Czech Republic, one of several countries that have strict naming laws. The mother-to-be would like to name her son Lisandro, but needs official...
A listener in Port Washington, Wisconsin, asks: When is it appropriate to get rid of an old edition of a dictionary? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Discarding and Replacing Dictionaries” Hi, you have A Way with Words...