Tim from Manhattan Beach, California, says his grandmother used to carry a brown paper bag and call it her poke sack. The word poke, in this case, means bag, making poke sack a pleonasm, which is an expression using more words than necessary to...
Lacy from Virginia Beach, Virginia, says her Lebanese in-laws often use the expression ya’aburnee when addressing an adorable child. Literally it translates as “may you bury me,” the idea being that the child is so precious one...
When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call a gypsy. But there’s a growing recognition that many people find the term gypsy...
Those little musical interludes on radio programs, particularly public radio shows, go by lots of names, including stinger, button, bumper, and bridge. By the way, the fellow who chooses and inserts them in our show is our engineer and technical...
What’s a doomaflatchie? A listener shares this alternate for doohickie, thingamajig, doodad, or any other one of those whatchamacalits. Here’s the Tim McGraw song about his doomaflatchie. This is part of a complete episode.
A Dallas man says his father, who served in Vietnam, signed letters back home to the family with the phrase “don’t take any wooden nickels.” The hosts explain that this expression means “don’t let anyone swindle you...