I’m as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth goes back to the 18th century. The quip appears in Jonathan Swift’s Polite Conversation, published around 1738, and in the 1811 slang dictionary Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Gail...
Did you know reading poetry improves your prose? That includes hip-hop lyrics, too. Also, how linguist can guess where you come from based on how you speak. What do you call someone who picks the chocolate out of the trail mix...
If someone is two plums short of a Happy Meal—or more commonly, two french fries short of a Happy Meal—they’re they’re not playing with a full deck. In fact, such good-natured teases are sometimes called fulldeckisms. This is part of a...
Which is correct: several persons or several people? The word persons tends to be used in corporate, legalese contexts, and people is the more natural term. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Several Persons vs. Several...
The SAT is changing things up, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just because words like membranous are no longer in the verbal section doesn’t mean kids aren’t learning important vocabulary. And speaking of useful terms...
For all intents and purposes, the phrase all intensive purposes is just plain wrong. It’s an example of what linguists call an eggcorn. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Intensive Purposes” Hello, you have A Way...