Need a way to select someone from a group to be a recipient of something? Horsengoggle it! Kids have been horsengoggling for a long time, and sometimes children start out this counting game in German, with Einz, Zwei, Drei, Horsengoggle! No one...
John in Brattleboro, Vermont, is pondering words and phrases that change their meaning when they move from one language to another. For example, in Germany the English phrase public viewing doesn’t have to do with a wake, but a live sporting event...
If you need to release some tension but don’t want to curse, try shouting “sacapuntas!” This Spanish word for “pencil sharpener” falls into a colorful line of curses that aren’t actually curses. For plenty of others, turn to Michelle Witte’s book...
What IS the longest word in the English language? “Antidisestablishmentarianism”? “Floccinaucinihilipilification”? Or “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,” maybe? Martha and Grant discuss such sesquipedalian contenders for the title of...
BONCOB n.— «As those pseudo-silk purses now unravel, a new acronym has joined the financial argot: BONCOB, pronounced Bon-cob, according to debt traders. Translation (have the children leave the room now): “Bugger off, no chance of borrowing.”...
scofticism n.— «Our side’s comebacks have lacked its punch and pizzazz. Neither “fundamentalist materialism” nor “pseudo-skepticism” nor “pathological skepticism” nor sneer-quoted “skepticism” can match it as a Tenacious Taunting Tag. But my term...