Mackenzie from Green Bay, Wisconsin, learned the word agita from a friend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She uses it to refer to “that heavy, sluggish feeling one gets after eating too much,” the feeling some call the meat sweats. The word agita comes...
The English language has a variety of expressions referring to the excretion of moisture from the skin due to heat. There’s the verb perspire and the Yiddish borrowing schvitz. If you perspire profusely, you may sweat buckets, or be sweating like a...
Gerrymandering draws political boundaries to tip elections towards certain political parties. Originally, the word was pronounced “GARY-mandering” with a hard “g.” But why? And why did it change? • Mark Twain and Helen Keller...
Elbow grease isn’t a product you can buy at the hardware store. If a task demands elbow grease, that just means whatever you’re doing requires hard work that might result in sweat. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
coolie n.— «Apprentices have been at work for more than an hour now, doing “coolies,” a term for unskilled labor such as Barnies” groundskeeping chores. With sweat rolling down foreheads, they work diligently, even if...
swass n.— «Ah yes, swass. Just like swalls, swagina, and swaxillas…gotta love a good sweat. Too bad that swass can lead to chafing if you walk too much, like my buddy did in Vegas!» —“Re: ass sweat” Usenet: rec.music...
