Galen in White River, Arizona, asks: Is there really a “neutral” accent, and if so, what is it? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Is There Really a Neutral Accent?” Hi there, you have A Way with Words. Hi...
Linguistic freezes, also known as binomials or irreversible pairs, are words that tend to appear in a certain order, such as now and then, black and white, or spaghetti and meatballs. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
In his 1869 volume Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech, self-appointed grammar maven Richard Meade Bache gave specious advice against using the word love when you merely mean like. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Love or...
Josh in Dallas wondered whether pussyfooting is offensive after a colleague objected to it at work. The word isn’t inherently vulgar or sexist. It comes from pussycat and the image of a cat stepping softly. Since the 1890s, pussyfoot has meant to...