TagTranscription

Lay vs. Laid

A medical transcriptionist who majored in English reports that her co-workers are squabbling over a sentence: “The patient was brought to the operating room, and laid supine on the operating-room table.” This is part of a complete...

voice writing

voice writing  n.— «In the US, court reporters have abandoned stenotype machines, whose keyboards use chord-like combinations to represent sounds, for a technique called voice writing. The “writer”—really a speaker—repeats...

The Life of Riley

An Indianapolis listener who lives on same street where James Whitcomb Riley made his home wonders if the poet’s name has anything to do with the expression associated with living in high style, “the life of Riley.” Click on the...

J-Dub

J-Dub  n.— «The SY’s, as the community members call themselves (pronounced “ess-why”—it’s a shorthand for “Syrian”)…came to derisively refer to the Ashkenazim as “J-Dubs,” a play on the first and third letters of the English word...