Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...
Bhavika in San Diego, California, was intrigued to hear an English speaker use the phrase too clever by half meaning “a little too smart for one’s own good” or “more clever than prudent.” There’s a similar phrase in her native Gujarati that...
Sayed lives in Houston, Texas, but grew up in Pakistan speaking Urdu and Punjabi. As someone who began learning English two years ago, he finds that he often mixes up gendered pronouns. It’s not surprising that he would confuse he with she and him...
Books for sale, books for free, and wisdom passed down through the ages. Libraries aren’t just repositories for books — they’re often a great place to find gently used volumes for sale. Or you can always visit a “little free library” — a...
Postalgia is a possible new coinage for the sorrowful, time-shifted awareness Alice in Tampa describes when she hears an old podcast interview with someone who has since died, while knowing the speaker had no idea what was coming. Words like...
A native French speaker wants clarification about the use of the word precipice in English. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Precipice” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Philippe. Philippe, where are you calling us from...