Ruth from Philadelphia asks whether hiya, a greeting she grew up using near Quakertown, Pennsylvania, is a real word or just a local oddity. The form is well attested: the Dictionary of American Regional English records American examples back to...
The word silly didn’t always have its modern meaning. In the 1400s, silly meant happy or blessed. Eventually, “silly” came to mean weak or in need of protection. Other seemingly simple words have shifted meanings as the English language developed:...
Lock the bad guys up in the hoosegow! This slang term for a jail comes from the Spanish juzgado, meaning tribunal. It’s an etymological relative of the English words judge and judicial. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hoosegow”...
alpha gent n.— «“I like to think we’re producing a magazine for the…“ He pauses, and adopts the self-conscious twinkle of a marketing man with a buzz word to unleash: “Alpha Gent!”» —“Men’s Health – Arrival of the Fittest” by Polly...
two Cs in a K n.— «If all this sounds like the ad industry is still rooted in a sexist world that the rest of us have left behind, then remember that not that long ago there was a standard adland shorthand for an entire genre of advertising known...
tabbing n.— «All of sudden a helicopter rises out of a valley, makes one pass over the landing site, before zeroing in and touching down.…They are returning after a night under the stars, tabbing, as they call it, around a dozen miles over testing...