A North Carolina woman says when she told her friend she had a TL for her, the friend had no idea what she was talking about. She learns that the term is a shortened form of a secondhand compliment also known as a trade-last or last-go-trade. This...
BTDubs, a San Diego caller notices that more of her co-workers are talking in text, saying things like “BRB” instead of “Be right back” or “JK” instead of “Just kidding!” Is it a passing fad, or a new way of speaking? This is part of a complete...
“Redd up the table!” A California listener says he remembers hearing that all the time when growing up in Iowa, but now that he’s on the West Coast, no one has any idea what he’s talking about. You’ll sometimes see it spelled “red up.”This is part...
If you have a word lover on your gift list, Martha and Grant have book recommendations for you. For adults, Martha recommends linguist Geoffrey Nunberg’s collection of essays, The Years of Talking Dangerously. For kids, Grant’s been enjoying David...
Many of us learned the rule about using the preposition between when talking about two items, but among when talking about more than two. In reality, though, the rule is a little more complicated. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There’s a word for the practice of referring to oneself in...
