Ten-year-old Alex, from Oceanside, California, wonders if a cat’s flicking tail inspired the expression telltale sign, meaning “an indicator.” The word is telltale, not its soundalike telltail. About 400 years ago, a telltale was a...
Jody calls are military cadences based on the exploits of Jody, an imaginary character blamed for all the things that might go wrong back home while a soldier is deployed, such as losing one’s girlfriend or car. In a master’s thesis...
Bob in Oceanside, California, learned the practical range of Spanish mordida in Baja: it can mean an actual bite, as in a warning about a dog, and in Mexico it can also mean a bribe, the sort demanded instead of a ticket. The English expression put...
It’s far less common for women in the United States to name their daughters after themselves, but it has been done. Eleanor Roosevelt, for one, is actually Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Jr. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
“Cutting a check” is a far more common phrase than “tearing off a check,” because for years checks weren’t perforated, so bankers had to actually use a metal device to cut them. This is part of a complete episode...
Lena, a physician in Oceanside, California, asks about medical pimping: the ritual of a senior doctor quizzing a student, intern, or resident with questions that often get harder until the trainee misses one, sometimes in front of peers. The term...