Paul in Tucson, Arizona, asks about ragamuffin, a word his mother used for someone with ripped, dirty, or disheveled clothes. The word’s history isn’t entirely clear, but hundreds of years ago ragman and ragamuffin referred to the Devil, possibly...
To shammick means to “amble about slowly or lounge around.” Most often heard in Appalachia, this verb is also spelled shummick. Writer Horace Kephart defined it this way: “to shuffle about, idly nosing into things, as a bear does when there is...
Mahalia from San Diego, California, has a friendly disagreement with her husband over the phrase it takes all kinds. She understands the expression to mean that the world requires many different kinds of people to function. He thinks it means that...
Rick in San Diego, California, wants to know why his older relatives always inscribed birthday cards with the phrase many happy returns of the day. This phrase, and the shorter version, many happy returns, indicates that the speaker is sending...
Oliver Goldsmith observed that there was no use arguing with lexicographer Samuel Johnson, because “when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “No...
In Zen Buddhism, the term all one refers to a state of enlightenment that’s the opposite of isolated and alone. The word alone, however, comes from the idea of “all on one’s own.” The word alone also gives us lone, lonely and...