Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics’ puzzlement, was Shea’s new book...
A listener in Brazil challenges Martha’s pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word.
Grant dishes up the latest language headlines from around the world, including names so weird they sparked legal action. Two New Zealand parents really did name their daughter “Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii.” Also, what’s wrong...
brouse n.— Note: A variant spelling of, and derived from, the verb “browse.” The Oxford English Dictionary has this term dated to 1552. «Hiram said the winter of 1833 was bad for working out so they didn’t get much of the...
thrashing n.— Note: Perhaps related to the British noun “thrash,” which means “a party.” «Evidence gathered from the social networking site led proctors at the university to collect five times as much money this...
ricket n.— Note: The Oxford English Dictionary has one cite for this word from 1958, defining it as criminals’ slang meaning “a blunder, mistake.” «Hearn is still involved in snooker, supplying Sky with the premier...