If someone’s unfamiliar to us, why do we say I don’t know him from Adam’s off ox? This phrase is occasionally mistaken as Adam’s all fox. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Know Someone From Adam’s...
Nikki in Northampton, Massachusetts, disagrees with her teenage daughter about the word beef, as in to have a beef, meaning “to have a problem with someone or something.” Nikki uses the word a before the word beef, but her daughter omits...
Katie in Greenville, South Carolina, reports that when she was growing up in rural Montana, if one of her classmates was caught doing something wrong or reprimanded by a teacher, the rest of the children would say a ver, drawing out the syllables...
Alan, who grew up in eastern North Carolina, remembers his mother saying jubous when she distrusted a claim or felt doubtful about a situation. The word appears in spellings such as jubous, jubus, dubous, and dubus, all reflecting dialect...
Kit from Pulaski, Tennessee, recalls that when he played hide-and-seek as a youngster in Miami, Florida, the call he and his friends used at the end of the game to draw everyone out of hiding was All y’all come in free!. However, he’s...
Marjorie in Huntsville, Alabama, wonders about the saying Empty wagons make the most noise suggesting that the people who talk the most about a subject aren’t necessarily the most knowledgeable. This notion goes all the way back to ancient...