What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wang wang. Also, the story behind the British tradition of scrumping. It’s not a middle school...
In China, dogs say wang wang instead of woof woof. Wikipedia has a great list of such cross-linguistic onomatopoeias. Of course, we all know what the fox says. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Dog Says “Wang...
Ping, as in ping me, meaning “contact me,” comes from the onomatopoeic ping we get from technology such as sonar. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Ping” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Nadia...
Untz or oonce reprsents the thump of a dance beat; wub gives dubstep’s wobbling bass a little mouth-made machinery. Modern onomatopoeia—sound-imitating words from the era of computers, electronic music, and ray guns—also includes beep for a computer...
The disturbing sensation you feel when almost-human characters seem downright creepy is called the uncanny valley. Speaking of creepy, do you know someone with a morbid fear of clowns? There’s a term for that, too. Why do politicians suspend a...
A college senior has invented a word to describe that anxiety we feel when there’s unfinished work looming over us. He calls it desgundes. As in, “that twenty-year-old in the library making a three-foot boondoggle must likely be dealing...