Our conversation about using natural objects such as rocks, driftwood, or antlers, as decoration prompted a Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, beachcomber to suggest that like beachcombing, searching for such items in the woods might be described as...
In the 19th century, the slang term door-knocker referred to a beard-and-mustache combo that ringed the mouth in the shape of a metal ring used to tap on a door. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Door-Knocker Beard”...
It’s hard enough to get a new word into the dictionary. But what happens when lawmakers get involved? New Jersey legislators passed a resolution as part of an anti-bullying campaign urging dictionary companies to adopt the word upstander. It...
“Cutting a check” is a far more common phrase than “tearing off a check,” because for years checks weren’t perforated, so bankers had to actually use a metal device to cut them. This is part of a complete episode...
There’s a new kind of hamburger menu that involves pixels, not pickles. It’s that little stack of horizontal lines in the corner of a webpage that you click to see more options. You might use a hamburger menu while webrooming–that...
Melissa from New Orleans, Louisiana, found herself catching flak after suggesting at Thanksgiving dinner that her family say what they were grateful for. The word traces to German anti-aircraft guns, Fliegerabwehrkanone, literally “pilot-warding-off...