Julio from Frisco, Texas, asks about “do me a solid,” meaning “do me a favor,” after first hearing it in a context that made him wonder if it had something to do with bowel trouble. The phrase dates at least to the 1960s and appears to come from an...
Starting this year, Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants not only have to spell words correctly. A controversial new rule means they’ll have to answer vocabulary questions, too. Also, when it comes to reading text, do you prefer...
Did your teacher ever make you write a sentence over and over as punishment? That task is called a pensum. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Pensum” At the beginning of every opening credit scene to The Simpsons, Bart...
A prison employee wants to know about the term shank, that name for sharp weapons made with toothbrushes and pieces of metal. It derives from shank in the sense of the type of animal bone historically used in weapon making. This is part of a...
Amber from Berlin, New Hampshire, works in a prison, and wants to know why those ominous double sets of prison doors are called by the feminine-sounding name sallyport. Going back to the 1600s, a sallyport was a fortified entrance to a military...
Twittering, tweeting, twirting—it’s rare to see a whole new body of language appear right before your eyes. But that’s what’s happening with Twitter. We discuss the snappy new shorthand of the twitterati. Also, why do people feel...
