Hi, all -- What's your choice for Word of the Year? "Vuvuzela"? "Starwhacker"? This week, we discuss WOTY candidates, plus the name "Hawaii 5-0," the political tagline "I approve this message,"...
Martha and Grant share some of their latest guilty-pleasure reading from Twitter feeds that show just how much meaning can be compressed into 140 characters. Cases in point: @veryshortstory and @GRAMMARHULK. This is part of a complete episode...
John in Mysterious Waters, Florida, wonders whether it’s socially acceptable to misspell words on purpose on social media so they look more like the way he talks. Spellings such as mah for my, dawg for dog, and aight for all right can work as eye...
Greetings, Murphys and Melvins and wedgies, oh my! In this week’s archive episode, we talk about these and other terms for that cruel prank that involves a yank. Also, funny Facebook groups for grammar lovers, the difference between...
Huzzah! It's "The Fighting Kewpies, Uh-hunh!" In this week's archive episode, we talk about some of the craziest names for school athletic teams. How about the Plainfield Fighting Quakers? Or the Maryville Spoofhounds? We also...
The Library of Congress is archiving the entire content of Twitter. Grant explains why that’s a gold mine for language researchers like David Bamman at Tufts University. You can see some of the results Bamman’s compiled at Lexicalist.com...