Tom from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, notices something odd while doing a tick check after a walk in the woods: Both tick and check can mean “a checkmark,” making the compound a kind of accidental synonym sandwich. The linguistic term for a word...
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...
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union kicked Pluto off its planetary pedestal. In his delightful book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming (Bookshop|Amazon) astronomer Mike Brown recounts the events leading up to the demotion of that...
The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language (Bookshop|Amazon) reflects 450 years of English as it has been spoken and written in what is now the United States. Edited by Ilan Stavans, this anthology of original texts—essays, articles...
The Japanese neologism taipa refers to the level of satisfaction gained compared with the time spent. You might increase taipa, for example, by listening to an audiobook at twice the normal speed. Taipa derives from the Japanese words taimu...
Here’s a neologism used to describe someone possessed of effortless attractiveness or style: rizz. It’s a shortening of charisma, a word that goes back to ancient Greek. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “It Don’t Mean a Thizz If You...