What colorful language do you use to when you’re angry and tempted to use a four-letter word? There’s a difference between cursing and cussing: It takes a slow mind to curse, but an active, vibrant mind to cuss. Also, what it means to be stove up...
A dish-to-pass supper, common in Indiana, is the same as a pot-luck supper or a covered-dish supper, but the term nosh-you-want drew a red flag when Grant went to visit the Wikipedia page for potluck. It hadn’t appeared in any other form of print —...
What would you bring to a pitch-in? An Indiana transplant shares this newly acquired term for a potluck dinner. Martha points out that the Dictionary of American Regional English has a map showing the distribution of the term, and it’s limited...
Nominations for Word of the Year 2007
In this episode, Grant offers peek at some expressions he’s nominating for the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year vote in January. Will it be “w00t,” “subprime,” or something else?
Get out your plastic utensils and pull up a folding chair! A caller’s question about the origin of the word potluck stirs up mouthwatering memories of crispy fried chicken, warm peach cobbler, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows. Okay, the Jell-O...
In this episode, Grant offers a peek at some expressions he’s nominating for the American Dialect Society’s 2007 Word of the Year vote in January, 2008. Will it be w00t, subprime, or something else? You can also check out Grant’s look at “word of...