The Southern idiom tear the rag off the bush has been used when scandalous relationships are revealed, but it’s also applicable to anything surprising. It’s similar to “Don’t that beat all?” and “Doesn’t...
Yolani from San Diego grew up saying squoze as the past tense of squeeze, as in “I squoze some oranges,” and wants to know whether it’s a real word. The standard form for formal writing and speech is squeezed, but squoze has centuries of dialectal...
Scone can rhyme with either Joan or John, and dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary, recognize both pronunciations. Chris from Seattle, whose Canadian wife favors the John rhyme, has run into the same split in text-to-speech...
Why do people up and quit? Can’t they just … quit? In the 1300s, up and followed by an action literally meant you got up and did something. Today, it’s taken the figurative meaning of doing something with vigor and enthusiasm, and...
When something’s in its heyday, its in its prime. What does that have to do with hay? Nothing, actually. It goes back to the 1500s, when heyday and similar-sounding words were simply expressions of celebration or joy. Grant is especially fond...
When it comes to marriage, you’ve got to work with your OH — that is, your other half. Lexicographers for the Oxford English Dictionary are tracking this initialism, as well as DH, or dear husband, for possible inclusion in future editions...