When writing textbooks about slavery, which words best reflect its cold, hard reality? Some historians are dropping the word slave in favor of terms like enslaved person and captive, arguing that these terms are more accurate. And raising a...
The low, wheeled device that auto mechanics use to slide under a car is called a creeper. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Creeper” Somebody told me she had a dream about a bed and a person she knows shot out of the...
Nathan from Abilene, Texas, asked for a dolly at a London trade-show venue and got blank looks until he described the device, which the workers called a trolley. Names for these wheeled haulers vary even in the United States: for some people, a...
What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them bascarts. Check out this dialect map featuring...
ding-ding n. a streetcar or trolley. Editorial Note: Athough this term is specific to Hong Kong, in Japan streetcars are sometimes called chin chin densha, meaning ‘ding ding trains.’ Etymological Note: Imitative of the sound of a bell. (source:...