Understanding the varieties of conversational styles can mean the difference between feeling you’re understood and being insulted. “High-involvement” speakers interrupt or talk along with someone else to signal their enthusiasm...
Why don’t we refer to prunes as dried plums? Prune and plum come from the same distant etymological roots and traveled into English via French and German respectively. The French still use prune for “plum.” Other foods that undergo...
The term dried plum has come into vogue since prune seems to have some negative connotations. This is part of a complete episode.
Dry a grape and it becomes a raisin, dry a plum and it turns into a prune. Why don’t we just call them dried grapes and dried plums? This is part of a complete episode.
An Atlanta native wants to know why she and her fellow Southerners grew up using the word plum, as in “plum tuckered out.” Martha explains the connection between that kind of “plum” and “plumbers.” This is part of...
rom-com n.— «The Holiday, written and directed by gal-movie goddess Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give) offers a classic rom-com contrivance as Yankee overachiever Cameron Diaz and Brit plum pudding Kate Winslet swap houses and find...
