Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler?
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant, from Cold Spring, Kentucky, tries to tease out the real slang words from the fake ones. Rubber-bands or herkies? An executive handle or a producer’s button? This is part of a complete...
Sharpen those pencils! Martha and Grant are doing crossword puzzles on the air again, preparing for their appearance with NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in New York City.
A Texan says his grandmother used to refer to the thigh of a chicken as the “second joint.” Martha and Grant discuss whether it’s a regional term. By the way, if you want to know the French term Martha mentions that roughly...
An Atlanta native wants to know why she and her fellow Southerners grew up using the word plum, as in “plum tuckered out.” Martha explains the connection between that kind of “plum” and “plumbers.” This is part of...
When you were a child and wanted to lay claim to something, what did you say? Did you call “dibs”? Or “hosey” it? A caller is curious about another verb used in such situations: “finnie.” Grant explains this...