You may have a favorite word in English, but what about your favorite in another language? The Spanish term ojalá is especially handy for expressing hopefulness and derives from Arabic for “God willing.” In Trinidad, if you want to ask...
In Korea, fairy tales often begin with the saying In the old days, when tigers used to smoke. Turkish children often hear an opening like this one: Once there was, once there was not, when camels were town criers and fleas were barbers, when I...
Mateo in Richmond, Virginia, is curious about a story he heard about the term paper tiger, meaning “something that looks fearsome or ferocious, but is actually flimsy or weak.” It’s not from Tiger, a type of German tank used during...
If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your...
Stephanie in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was puzzled when a colleague used the expression like grabbing a wolf by the ears to describe an impossible task. Like the idiom to have a tiger by the tail, it suggests the paralyzing difficulty of having hold of...
In English, fairy tales often begin with the phrase “once upon a time.” In contrast, Korean folktales often begin with “In the old days, when tigers used to smoke,” or similar phrases, such as “In the old, old days when...