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?
Bubbler, meaning water fountain, is strongly associated with eastern Wisconsin and Rhode Island, where John from Minneapolis grew up saying it as bubbla. One early trail leads to the Kohler Company in Wisconsin, which introduced a bubbling valve...
marble fever n.— «But for all the learning there is to do on Smith Hill, presumed Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed cautioned the newcomers to avoid so-called “marble fever”—a term for legislators “who get up here and forget about the...
Grant talks about a Jack Hitt article on dying languages in the New York Times, which points out that sometimes “the last living speaker” of a language…isn’t. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Last Living...
Greetings, wanderers, and welcome home. This past weekend on A Way with Words we wrestled with "commentate," "tie me over" vs. "tide me over," long words, and "biweekly" vs. "semiweekly." We also...
This week’s Slang This! contestant, a comic-book illustrator from Providence, R.I., tries to guess the meaning of the expressions “hat-catcher” and “to go shucks.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...