Emily from Madison, Wisconsin, has three nieces and a nephew, and wonders if there’s a gender-neutral term for the group of them, in the same way cousins can designate one or two genders. German has the single word Geschwisterkind, meaning...
A woman in Farmers Branch, Texas, explains how the simple term cousin succinctly denotes a complicated relationship. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “”Cousin” is a Word for Complicated Relationships”...
A transgender and gender-nonconforming listener wonders if there’s a gender-neutral term for “aunt” or “uncle.” Some people have suggested pibling, meaning the “sibling of one’s parent.” Others have...
If you’re serious about writing a memoir, what topics should you include, and what can you leave out? And how honest can you really be about the other people in your life? Some of America’s leading memoirists wrote things they lived to...
A silly joke about a parrot made the rounds of 19th-century American newspapers and may be the source for our expression “cry uncle,” meaning “to give up.” The anecdote features a boastful owner who orders a pet parrot to speak the word “uncle,” but...
Auntie and uncle are often used beyond the family tree as respectful terms for older adults who are close to the family but not blood relatives. Listeners reported this pattern in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, India, the Philippines...