An Omaha, Nebraska, woman reports that a customer emailed her after a sales presentation to correct her pronunciation of the word via, meaning “through” or “by means of.” In this case, the customer wasn’t right: via can...
A wingnut is a handy, stabilizing piece of hardware. So why is it a pejorative term for those of a certain political persuasion? Also, is there something wrong with the phrase committed suicide? Some say that the word commit is a painful reminder...
An Omaha, Nebraska man wonders about starting a sentence with the word anymore, meaning “nowadays.” Linguists refer to this usage as positive anymore, which is common in much of the Midwest and stems from Scots-Irish syntax. This is part...
A listener in Omaha, Nebraska, says his mother always ends a phone conversation not with Goodbye, but mmm-bye. How common is that? This is part of a complete episode.
redshirt v.— «Parents who “redshirt” their 5-year-olds instead of enrolling them in kindergarten are a concern to some Nebraska educators who are trying to reverse the trend of holding children back until age 6 to start school...
Tingle table n.— «The 1040EZ form, designed for those with only the standard deduction, are taken from the Tingle table directly to an optical scanner, which picks up the information and relays it to the computer in the service center...