Teresa in Plano, Texas, noticed airport cancellation boards spelling the past tense of cancel both canceled and cancelled. In the United States, canceled with one l is usual, while British, Canadian, and many other English varieties typically use...
We spoke earlier about cumshaw artists, or people who get things done by crafty stealing or bartering. Alan Johnson from Plano, Texas, told us a story from his Air Force days in Vietnam, when he and some comrades stole a bunch of plywood by sneaking...
If she’ll make a train take a dirt road, does that mean she’s pretty or ugly? Nicole from Plano, Texas, overheard the idiom in the Zach Brown Band’s song “Different Kind of Fine.” The idea is an ugliness is so powerful...
Mary Kay in Plano, Texas, got dinged by her boss for ending a list with whatnot, as in “travel or business or whatnot.” The word is a loose equivalent of etcetera, and the sense comes from the idea of “what would not be included.” Some dictionaries...
What does it mean to have chops? In the 1500s, chops was a slang term for the face or lips, but it carried into African-American jazz culture to mean that a brass or wind player had good embouchure. The idea is reflected in the old jazz musician’s...
So, can a sentence begin with the word so? Which ones? So is oftentimes used in place of therefore to conclude an explanation, but more people are using it as a general sentence-starter, in the same vein as well. Grant notes that while it may be...