When reading Geraldine Brooks’s novel March (Bookshop|Amazon), a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, listener noted the author uses both the phrases I held my peace and I would hold my piece referring to the act of refraining from speaking. Which is correct...
Decisions by dictionary editors, wacky wordplay, and Walt Whitman’s soaring verse. How do lexicographers decide which historical figures deserve a mention or perhaps even an illustration in the dictionary? The answer changes with the times. •...
Pax! is what Matthew in Dallas, Texas, remembers shouting as a boy in Nairobi when a game of tag needed to pause for a loose shoelace or a fall, often with crossed fingers to make the truce visible. The word is Latin for peace, and in playground use...
Did you ever wonder why we capitalize the pronoun “I,” but not any other pronoun? Also, the romantic story behind the term halcyon days, the origin of the phrase “like white on rice,” and the linguistic scuttlebutt on the word scuttlebutt. Plus, a...
You know that book missing a letter about the young Southern woman finding peace in a storm? It’s called One With the Wind. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “One With the Wind” One more book with a letter missing for you, Martha...
Hi-ho, Martha and Grant here! Did you miss us? We've been super-busy, working hard to keep bringing you more entertaining conversation about language. Thanks for the cards, letters, and phone calls in which you share your love, too. We want to...
