Shut your piehole! means “Shut your mouth!” Dave in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, heard it during a tense exchange at a mechanic’s shop. Piehole appears to be a U.S. offshoot of the older cakehole, recorded from the 1940s and likely associated with British...
Need a word for “lover of the underdog”? It’s infracaninophile. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Infracaninophile” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hello, I’m Kate Rosenmeier and I’m calling from Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Kate...
A father of two small children says his Indiana family referred to a child’s runny nose as a “lamb’s legs,” as in “We need to wipe the lamb’s legs off.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Lamb’s Legs” Hello, you have A Way with Words...
A listener asks: “Does the phrase ‘snap, crackle, and pop’ need a cereal comma?” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Snap, Crackle, Pop” Digging through the email bag here, Grant, we got something from Mark J. Drodowski in Templeton...
Need to type something in Linear B or Mayan? Want to make Japanese emoticons? Now you can. Grant explains why the release of Unicode 6 has many typescript aficionados doing the happy dance. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Unicode...
Need a great synonym for “overthinking”? Try beanplating. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Beanplating” You know I find a million new words, so this is just one of a zillion. Yeah, are you ever guilty of bean plating? Bean plating...
