The adjectives canine and feline refer to dogs and cats. But how does English address other groups of animals? Plus, cabin fever has been around much longer than the current pandemic. That restless, antsy, stir-crazy feeling goes back to the days...
The title of the 1918 novel Cabin Fever, by B.M. Bower, references the term then widely used in the American West to denote the restless feeling of being cooped up too long in a cabin all winter. A synonym for cabin fever is shanty fever. On the...
This week: Do you ever find yourself less-than-specific about your age? Listeners share some of their favorite phrases for fudging that number, like: “Oh, I’m 29, plus shipping and handling.” Also in this episode: • Since ancient times, people have...
A triathlete in Traverse City, Michigan, calls to say she’s going stir-crazy while recuperating from an injury. The term stir-crazy makes sense if you know that stir is an old synonym for “prison.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Pineapple Express n.— «In mid-February, the jet stream split in two over the mid-Pacific. The two arms of the jet stream then collided just off the California coast, with one bringing cold air from Alaska and the other—dubbed the “Pineapple...
bucket biologist n.— «The balance of nature in every lake is so fine that an ignorant bucket biologist has the potential to plunder and vandalize a fishery.…Bucket biologists are hard at work all over the country. Walleyes are being dumped into...