What’s the origin of the word nerd, referring to “an unfashionable person”? Does it come from Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo? (Amazon). Incidentally, a nerdle is a dollop of toothpaste on a toothbrush. Sometimes spelled nurdle, this slang term...
News reports that the makers of Scrabble were changing the rules to allow proper names left some purists fuming. The rumors were false, but they got Grant thinking about idiosyncratic adaptations of the game’s rules. Also this week, the origins of...
An SAT prep teacher in Santa Cruz, California, hears lots of teen slang in his work, and is struck by a new use of the term legit. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Slang Term “Legit”” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name...
trep n.— «She also owns Dream Wings, a nearly 2-year-old company she started with her mother that raises and sells butterflies for weddings and parties. That’s the “trep” side of Kassidy—teen-age slang for “entrepreneur.”» —“The Kansas City Star...