A man who divides his time between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, wonders if linguistic mixtures similar to Spanglish arise at other borders. Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language by Ilan Stavans, offers a look at this...
Why is the word pound abbreviated lb.? A listener from Tijuana, Mexico, learns that the answer relates to his native Spanish as well as the Latin term for “weighing.” This is part of a complete episode.
Buenos! In this week’s archive edition, we consider alternatives to the word “retirement.” We also discuss “swan song,” “bike-shedding,” “tohubohu,” “criteria,” and how to pronounce...
complete knockdown n.— «Still, said J.D. Powers’ Dunne, Chinese carmakers might not encounter the same challenges penetrating the U.S. market from Tijuana that Honda and Toyota did in the 1980s when they had no local supplier base. These...
yonke n.— «Painted in 1977, the mural at one edge of Chicano Park depicts protesters beneath the message “Varrio Si, Yonkes No!” Neighborhood yes, junkyards no.… Yonke, or yonque, is a term for junkyard that is used widely along the...
tortilla wall n.— «Alonzo cited the construction of a fence between Tijuana and San Diego, known in Mexico as “the tortilla wall.” It was completed in the 1990s and forced migrants into the sparsely populated and dangerous...