Whitney from Providence, Rhode Island, shares a funny story about her toddler’s misunderstanding of the word Shoo, as in Shoo it away. It has nothing to do with the shoe you wear on your foot! This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
You know when a cat’s tail goes straight up and appears to vibrate? Emily from Coventry, Rhode Island, says her family has their own word for that: fribbling. She says her family also made up the word bomple to denote the action of fruit bouncing...
How did the town of What Cheer, Iowa, get its name? The word cheer was long used to indicate an emotional state of any kind, so asking someone What cheer? was another way to say “How are you?” The greeting What cheer, netop? Is closely associated...
Students in New England might refer to playing hooky from school as bunking, or bunking off. Jonathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang traces the term back to the 1840s in the British Isles. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bunking”...
When someone says He didn’t lick that off the grass, it means he’s inherited a behavior from relatives or picked it up from those around them. This phrase is particularly common in Northern Ireland. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Do you say something happened on accident or by accident? Is text-messaging destroying our kids’ writing ability? Where do horseradish, zarf, and ignoramus come from?