Some people work hard to lose their accent in order to fit in. Others may be homesick for the voices they grew up with and try to reclaim them. How can you regain your old accent? Also, a compelling book about scientific taxonomy shows how humans...
Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist discovers a new species of bat, then names it after a poet he admires. Also, warm memories of how a childhood...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way translates as...
A Vermont caller has been told that when she was a young child, she had imaginary friends named Hooney and Dedilae. How do children choose names for their imaginary friends? As Marjorie Taylor and Naomi Aguiar show in their book Imaginary Friends...
Nancy Friedman is a naming and branding expert with a fantastic newsletter about language, Fritinancy which recently covered the neologism stinge-watching. It’s the opposite of binge-watching, and refers to the act of spacing out viewings of a...
We’ve talked before about dog rescue groups’ convention of naming litters of puppies according to a theme. Any idea why a recent litter of pups included Ramp, Slingshot, Kicker, and Flipper? They were all named for terms involved in pinball. This is...