What a difference pronunciation makes! The United States has a Department of Defense, and an individual might take classes in self-defense. So why do football and basketball coaches say they’re proud of their . . . “DEE-fence?” Linguists have a...
We’ll be celebrating the United States’ 250-year anniversary in about 12 years, and if you’re looking for a neat, shiny term for the event, how about bicenquinquagenary, or perhaps sestercentennial? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Can you guess what a smiley is? No, the other smiley. Or how about tarantula juice? You could, of course, happen upon someone with a muffin top drinking inferior whisky, or you could look these terms up in the new Green’s Dictionary of Slang...
Lawrence from San Diego asks whether an assignment should ask what students have learned or what they have learnt. The older -t past-tense and past-participle forms—learnt, spelt, and the like—largely gave way to -ed forms in American English during...
The joke treats President Obama’s BlackBerry phone as the BOTUS, a riff on POTUS, President of the United States. Staff apparently coined the acronym because he was so attached to the device, prompting the companion joke about FLOTUS, the First Lady...
Martha shares another email about the evolution of a pet’s name, in this case a dog whose original name was Dumpster. Now the pooch is named after the 19th president of the United States. Sort of. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...