The new book Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words (Bookshop|Amazon) by linguist Michael Erard is a deeply researched, often intensely personal exploration of the ways people communicate at both the beginning and end of life...
Leonor from Dallas, Texas, says that when she was a child, her Spanish-speaking mother and grandmother used to her after a bump or scrape with Sana, sana, colita de rana, Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana , literally, “Heal, heal, little frog’s tail...
If you’re talking about plans to make contact with someone, do you say you’re going to touch base or touch bases with them? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Touch Base vs. Touch Bases” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how are...
The word titch means “a small amount,” and is most likely just a variant of touch. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Titch” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Kelly calling from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hey, Kelly...
In rugby and soccer to kick into touch means to “kick a ball out of play.” The phrase by extension is used in British English mean to “take some kind of action so that a decision is postponed” or otherwise get rid of a problem. This is part of a...
Contact, when used as a verb, is another word that once prompted peeving. In fact, in the 1930s, an official at Western Union lobbied for a company-wide ban on the word, which he deemed a hideous vulgarism compared to the phrases “get in touch with”...