A Wyoming native asks about the origin of her father’s term of approbation, good leather. Grant thinks it might be from baseball, where good leather means “good fielding with a leather ball in a leather glove.” This is part of a...
Tony from Charlottesville, Virginia, a translator, asked about the phrase in your wheelhouse, meaning well within your area of expertise. According to the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the baseball term wheelhouse refers to the wheel motion of...
Martha reports that, during her recent attempt at learning to surf, she picked up lots of surfing lingo in between wipeouts. Such terms included tombstoning and pearling, both of which she did quite a bit. This is part of a complete episode...
Martha shares the term “hit and giggle”, a bit of sports slang term she picked up while working as an announcer at this year’s Mercury Insurance Open tennis tournament. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hit...
Grant and Martha discuss strange names for high school sports teams. Know another example? Talk about it in the forum. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Strange Mascot Names” You’re listening to A Way with Words...
bagel v.—Gloss: To score no points. Note: The noun “bagel” has long been used in tennis and other sports to mean “zero.” «As usual after a defeat, Venus was tight-lipped, offering platitudes but no explanation as...