In Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Bookshop|Amazon), Oxford University scholar Katherine Rundell offers a memorable quotation about the very astonishment of being alive. This is part of a complete episode. You know, sometimes you...
Bridget in Indianapolis, Indiana, knows raunchy as something bawdy or ribald, but her husband’s family uses it to mean “icky,” “unpleasant,” or “under the weather.” She first noticed the difference when his very polite Southern grandmother said his...
You’ve been reading a book but you’re just not into it. How do you quit it, guilt-free? How do you break up with a book? Also, what do you ask for when you go through the grocery checkout line: bag, sack, or something else? Plus, brung...
Why do physicians speak of turfing an undesirable patient? This is part of a complete episode. Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi there, this is Carmen Areola from Carlsbad. Hi, Carmen. Hi, Carmen. How are you doing? Good. What’s up? Well...
watch wardrobing n.— «This transformation of the business has also given rise to some horrendous new terminology, with “watch wardrobing” and “accessorizing your wrist” as two of the more egregious examples of the...
leverite n. (also leaverite) a worthless stone or rock, especially one mistaken as being valuable. Editorial Note: Paul Dickson writes in Family Words (1998, p. 79), “Heaverite, according to Raymond J. Nelson of Cody, Wyoming, is a rock that...
