A Vermont caller feels the word awesome is overused to the point of being almost meaningless. There’s a term for that. It’s called semantic weakening. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Semantic Weakening of...
So, um, where do those, er, filler words come from? Discourse particles, as they’re also known, are used to fill those gaps when we’re thinking of what to say but don’t want to lose our turn in a conversation. English isn’t...
The modifier lamming or lammin’, is used as an intensifier, as in “That container is lammin’ full,” meaning “That container is extremely full.” There’s a whole class of intensifying words like this in English, which have to do with the idea of...
To summarize something, we often use the phrase “all told.” But should it be “all tolled”? The correct phrase, “all told,” comes from an old use of the word tell meaning “to count,” as in a bank teller. All told is an example of an absolute...
A Texas listener says his family often describes a great meal as larrupin’. What does that mean, exactly? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Larrupin'” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name is Mark...
Writing in the Guardian, Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks, known as bangs or bangers (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject a couple of years ago in Slate. This is...