If you’ve accomplished something, be proud! But is it condescending to say you’re proud of someone when you had nothing to do with their success? A listener worries that the meaning of the word proud includes a sense of ownership. This...
We have collective nouns for animals, like “a gaggle of geese,” “a pride of lions,” and “an exaltation of larks.” So why not collective nouns for plants? How about a “greasing of palms,” or a...
Greetings! In last weekend’s archive episode, we wondered who thinks up those crazy names for paint chips. We also discussed “spam” and “gringo,” dashes and semicolons, the term “first annual,” and wearing...
Dipper n.— «My exquisite pleasure as a Liberal party man who barely knew a Tory or “Dipper” (as we called NDPers) was to work with people from organized labour, Liberals, Conservatives, ad people and NDPers all in a glorious...
Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop.
roast breadfruit n.— «If there is genuine pride in ethnic particularity, plain and simple, there can be no place for denouncing those who are not so vocal or even ambivalent about ethnic issues. Nor should we indulge or defend the...