Matt from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was puzzled when colleagues kept saying someone had stood up at a wedding, indicating that they’d been a member of the wedding party. The expression stood up in that sense is an Americanism going back about two...
Wendy from Falls Church, Virginia, asks about a gesture corresponding to the exclamation Shame, shame! that involves scraping one index finger over the other, almost as if peeling a carrot. A German name for a similar gesture actually translates as...
There’s no evidence that anyone named Sam Hill inspired the phrase What in the Sam Hill? It’s almost certainly just a euphemism for What in the hell? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “”What in the Sam...
Rose in Lebanon, Virginia recalls a phrase passed down from her great-grandmother: The night before the first day of school, parents would come into the children’s bedroom and say in a singsong voice: School butter, school butter. This...
Hillary in Woodstock, Vermont, grew up saying mayonnaise as MY-oh-nayz, just like her mother did. That pronunciation is real and valid, though uncommon. The French-derived word has never fully anglicized, so dictionaries and dialect surveys record...
Robert in Tucson, Arizona, asks how reptile enthusiasts should pronounce in situ, the Latin phrase meaning “in place,” used for finding a snake, lizard, or turtle exactly where it was, not posed for the camera. Because in situ still feels partly...