How do you pronounce the word macabre, meaning “morbid” or “gruesome”? The word may go back to the ancient Book of Maccabees, commemorated in medieval France with the danse de Macabré, often depicted in art as skeletons leading every type of person...
Essayist Rebecca Solnit has excellent advice for aspiring writers. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Solnit’s Writing Advice” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it...
The expression “to a T” comes from a shortening of tittle, a word meaning a little of something. The word tittle even shows up in the bible. There’s also an idiom “to the teeth,” as in dressed to the teeth, or fully...
Cynthia in La Crosse, Wisconsin, grew up hearing her father say Jumpin’ G. Hosaphat when startled. The expression is Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, a mild oath using the name of Jehoshaphat, an ancient king of Judah in the Old Testament, likely chosen for its...
Revengelical n.— Note: A play on “Evangelical.” «Wasn’t it in Genesis (as Revengelicals follow the Old Testament pretty closely) that Moses was speaking with God over the fate of the “wicked” city Sodom and that if...
top surgery n.— «He was in the process of legally changing his name to a male name, although he couldn’t decide whether to go casual (Rey) or Old Testament (Asher). And in December Rey underwent what he called “chest reconstruction...
