Tom from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, notices something odd while doing a tick check after a walk in the woods: Both tick and check can mean “a checkmark,” making the compound a kind of accidental synonym sandwich. The linguistic term for a word...
Miley in The Dalles, Oregon, asks about going gunny bags meaning to “break down” or “go haywire.” Her mother uses this expression, but has no idea where she picked it up. The term gunny sack, referring to a bag made of coarse material such as jute...
Tim from Manhattan Beach, California, says his grandmother used to carry a brown paper bag and call it her poke sack. The word poke, in this case, means bag, making poke sack a pleonasm, which is an expression using more words than necessary to...
A listener in Marquette, Michigan, says her daughters criticize her for saying where you at? They argue that the word at in this case is unnecessary. In many cases, this phrase is indeed a pleonasm, but Grant explains that in some contexts this use...
Summer brings a shift to weekly online audio releases instead of new radio broadcasts. The production team continues to read audience messages and social media posts. The linguistic concept of a pleonasm receives an explanation through the phrase...
An Austin teenager wants to know why we refer to a girl who behaves boyishly as a tomboy. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Tomboy” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, I’m sure my sister would disagree. Who is this? Get her on...