Justin from Fort Worth, Texas, heard a coworker warn against getting whistlebit, or “still being at work when the quitting whistle blows.” (Remember Fred Flintstone in the quarry?) The term whistlebit follows the pattern of snakebit, a slang term in...
In nautical lore, Fiddler’s Green is the mythical place where dead mariners go to enjoy a life of leisure, with plenty of song, dancing, flirting, and rum. It may be tempting to connect this expression with mariners’ term fid, or a...
A customer-service representative from Seattle, Washington, is curious about the phrases people use as a part of leave-taking when they’re finishing a telephone conversation. Linguists who conduct discourse analysis on such conversations say...
One hundred years ago, American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce published a curmudgeonly book of writing advice called Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults.
When someone’s fast asleep, a Texan might say that he’s “out like Lottie’s eye.” But who’s Lottie and what happened to her eye? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Out Like Lottie’s...
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant learns the difference between a trailer queen and soup spitter. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Trailer Queen and Soup Spitter” You’re listening to A Way...
