An 1875 dictionary of the Sussex dialect from southeastern England gives a colorful glimpse of life there in those days. A beever is “an 11 o’clock luncheon.” In parts of Sussex, a ladybug is variously known as a Bishop Barnaby, a fly-golding, or...
Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words for Kids: 75 Tremendous Words: Neatly Defined to Stick in the Mind (Bookshop|Amazon) uses clever rhymes to help children learn big, fun-to-say words like magnanimous, discombobulated, and acquiesce. This colorful book...
Images of birds flutter inside lots of English words and phrases, from “nest egg” and “pecking order,” to proverbs from around the world—including a lovely Spanish saying about how birds sense light just before dawn. Plus, how do you define “fun”...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been puzzling over eye rhymes, words that look like they should rhyme, but they don’t, like tough and plough. What is the eye rhyme in the following sentence? When I play peekaboo with my [ ], I so enjoy the sound of...
On the game show Um, Actually, the host reads out a series of supposed facts about various geeky subjects, and contestants must interject with the correct information, prefacing their answers with the phrase Um, Actually. That’s the inspiration for...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game that changes Venn diagrams to zen diagrams. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Zen Diagrams Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Martha Barnette...