Why does it seem that more and more people start responses to a question with the word so? After hearing our discussion about sentence-initial so, a Nashville, Tennessee, churchgoer calls to say that he often hears something similar at the beginning...
We heard from a woman who told her boyfriend about her plan to get her hair cut. He responded that he thought that particular style would make her hair “worse.” Does the word worse in this case imply that her hair was bad to begin with...
Oorie-eyed, Ann’s family word for furiously angry, is real enough: it descends from Scots oorie, a word recorded since at least the 1700s. Earlier senses included dismal, sad, weak, sick, drooping, chilly, or cold, and later uses could refer to...
Insure in the US Constitution’s preamble, as in to insure domestic tranquility, isn’t a mistake. Tim from Nashville noticed that modern usage often reserves insure for financial protection against loss and ensure for making certain something...
kibber n.— «As thousands of singers converge on Nashville for an international convention of barbershop harmony music, the old-fashioned music style is facing discord among its fans.…The signature sound of four unaccompanied male...
Knoxvegas n.— «The city, the third largest in Tennessee behind Nashville and Memphis, is also referred to as Knoxpatch, Knoxvegas and for those prone to irony and finger pistols, K-town, baby.» —“36 Hours in Knoxville” by...
