TagThis American Life

A Hankering for Fixing To

Jill from Maryville, Missouri, and her 11-year-old son Ryan are wondering about the phrases I have a hankering to do something and I’m fixing to do something. Growing up in East Central Nebraska, Jill heard family and friends use them synonymously...

Chicanery

How do you pronounce chicanery? Do you soften the a, as in Chicano? No! This term, meaning “trickery” or “disturbance of the peace,” is etymologically unrelated to Chicano. It is, however, a linguistic relative of the name of those concrete parking...

Cowboy Up and Money Bomb

In this week’s episode of Slang This!, Dave Dickerson from the National Puzzlers’ League tries to guess the meaning of the terms cowboy up and money bomb. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Cowboy Up and Money Bomb” You’re listening...