Ben Yagoda’s new book Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English, based on his blog Not One-Off Britishisms, which features words and phrases that are originally British but are being used more and more in the States, including...
A third-grader in San Diego, California, wants to know why the first episode of a television series is often titled Pilot. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why are First Episodes of Television Shows Called Pilots?”...
Many kids are saying derp in place of duh, and the phenomenon is largely due to Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s use of the term in their movie Baseketball and their television show South Park. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Jennifer from San Diego giggles whenever she hears per se. She first noticed it when a character in a South Park episode used the phrase constantly. Some people informally spell it per say, but the Latin se means itself. So per se means “in itself”...
You know that grammatical “rule” about not ending a sentence with a preposition? Well, who ever decided finishing off a sentence like that is a bad thing? (Personally, we think it’s one of the silliest things anyone ever came up...
This week’s “Slang This!” contestant is literary historian Jack Lynch, author of The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of ‘Proper’ English, from Shakespeare to South Park. He tries to guess the meaning of...