Is being jacked up a good thing or a bad thing? It depends. To jack up means “to raise up,” as with a car on a lift. But jack up also has a negative meaning, perhaps deriving from hijack or blackjack, suggesting that something’s...
If something’s soft and fuzzy, why not call it suvvy? Grant collected that bit of slang and more during a recent appearance in Potsdam, NY. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “New Slang from Potsdam” You’re...
If something pertains to a whole system or body, is it holistic or wholistic? Despite that tempting “w,” holistic is the correct term. It’s an example of folk etymology, the result of looking at the word whole and assuming that...
Which is the better term, recurrence or reoccurrence? A look at the corpus of American literature confirms that recurrence is far and away the more commonly used word denoting “something that occurs more than once.” This is part of a...
The old Yiddish word bupkis, referring to something of little or no value, has of late been split up for dramatic effect. As in, “that’s worth all of a bup and a kis!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
If you’ve accomplished something, go ahead and rest on your laurels. Martha traces this idiom back to Ancient Greece, where victors were crowned with a wreath of bay leaves from the bay laurel tree. In the 16th Century, to retire on...