Novelist Charles Dickens created many unforgettable characters, but he’s also responsible for coining or popularizing lots of words, like “flummox” and “butterfingers.” Also, the life’s work of slang lexicographer...
The exclamation “Oh my stars and garters!” likely arose from a reference to the British Order of the Garter. The award for this highest level of knighthood includes an elaborate medal in the shape of a star. The expression was probably...
Today’s most popular dog names are Max and Bella. In the Middle Ages, though, dogs would answer to names like Amiable. Or Nosewise. Or even … Clench. ? Is the term redneck derogatory? Some folks proudly claim that name. They say...
The die is cast has nothing to do with dye in water or a metal mold. The die is the singular of dice, and cast here means thrown, the older sense still found inside broadcast and podcast. Brian in Indianapolis ran into the phrase as the title of a...
Bow chicka wow wow is the joking riff that signals a sexual double entendre, and a cleaner echo is brown chicken, brown cow. The phrase mimics the same rhythm and shows up in Trace Adkins’s country song Brown Chicken, Brown Cow, with a video full of...
Is it really possible to change your style of speaking so that you stop using the verbal fillers um and you know? Yes, you can. Martha relates her experience with dialect-coach-to-the-stars Sam Chwat. He was adamant that by catching ourselves every...