Smoko is slang for “a cigarette break.” It’s used in Australia and also at a British research station in Antarctica. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Smoko, Drongo?” Here’s another bit of slang used by those researchers in...
After an international team of scientists and staffers spent six months at a research station in Antarctica, their accents changed ever so slightly, according to an acoustic analysis by German researchers. The slang terms they shared include dingle...
A Tucson, Arizona, couple is still laughing about the husband’s misunderstanding of the term soup tureen. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Soup Turbine? Soup Tramline? Soup Tar Ring?” We got a text from Ruth Brown in Tucson...
The Spanish idiom del año del caldo describes something exceedingly old. Literally translating as “from the year of the broth,” it suggests the idea that something is “as old as the year soup was invented.” Someone said to be wearing unos pantalones...
Jennifer in Omaha, Nebraska, is curious about the origin of the phrase to be in the soup, meaning “to get into trouble.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “To Be in the Soup” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Jennifer...
Adding to our long list of silly responses from harried parents to children who ask what they’re doing, Julie from Hammondsport, New York, says her father’s standard reply was: I’m sandpapering a bowl of soup. This is part of a complete episode...

