A.J. Jacobs’ book The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life (Amazon|Bookshop) includes this brain teaser translated from Swahili: I am a house without a door. This is part...
Pax! is what Matthew in Dallas, Texas, remembers shouting as a boy in Nairobi when a game of tag needed to pause for a loose shoelace or a fall, often with crossed fingers to make the truce visible. The word is Latin for peace, and in playground use...
In the Kiswahili language, the dead go into two categories: sasha for the recently departed, and zamani for spirits not known by anyone living. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Categories of Deceased in Kiswahili...
Books that make great gifts for language-lovers, the difference between a nerd and a geek, and talk about a new term, poutrage, and what do you call the crust in the corners of your eyes after a night’s sleep?
English is full of unusual terms, both old (eleemosynary, favonian) and new (flyaway, catio). Also, the Swahili term that means “sleep like a log,” the multiple meanings of the word joint, cowpies and horse biscuits, what it means to...
The Swahili phrase nililala fofofo means “to sleep really well.” Literally, though, it translates as “to sleep like a log.” Are the English and Swahili idioms related? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
