A woman whose first language is Persian wonders about the word enduring. Can she describe the work of being a parent as enduring? While the phrase is grammatically correct, the expression enduring parenting is not good idiomatic English. This is...
“May a mouse eat you,” or in Persian, moosh bokharadet, is a term of endearment suggesting the recipient is small and cute. Another picturesque hypocorism: French mon petit chou, “sweetheart,” but literally, “my little...
If you want to reassure someone, you might say “I’ve got your back.” In Persian, however, to indicate the same thing, you’d say the equivalent of “I have your air,” which is havato daram. This is part of a...
First-century graffiti. People in ancient times could be just as bawdy and colorful as we are today. To prove it, we found some graffiti written on the walls in the city of Pompeii, and found plenty of sex, arrogance and good old fashioned bathroom...
Renee in Plano, Texas, whose first language is Farsi, wonders if the name of the grandma in the classic film An Affair to Remember gave her family the name nanu, her family’s term for her paternal grandmother. Probably not. The name in the film is...
Why call it a doggy bag when it’s really for your husband? Grant and Martha talk about the language of leftovers and why we eat beef and not cow. And how old is the typical public-library patron? Plus, in Afghanistan, proverbs are part of...