Lily in Madison, Wisconsin, wonders about the use of the words vibe and vibing to mean “having a good time” with someone else. The sense of vibrations reflecting some kind of mystical connection goes centuries back and was famously celebrated in the...
Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski sorts out the hosts with a puzzle about book categories on Amazon.com. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Book Categories Puzzle” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use...
When politicians, authority figures, or bureaucrats ignore those who need help, they’re said to be sitting high and looking low. This idiom, almost exclusive to the African-American community, goes back to 1970s. It’s also used in a religious sense...
Yep, it's another newsletter from A Way with Words! There's something kind of special about the language a family invents for its own use, so we talked about it on this past weekend's show. We also tried to narrow down the difference...
woo-woo adj. concerned with emotions, mysticism, or spiritualism; other than rational or scientific; mysterious; new agey. Also n., a person who has mystical or new age beliefs. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
ninth island n.— «A lecture on “Hawaiian Spirituality on the Ninth Island” will be presented from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Spring Valley Library, 4280 S. Jones Blvd. (391-7416).» —“Activities and events in Las Vegas” by Ronelle Botwinik Las Vegas...
