South African English is a rich mix of Afrikaans, English, and indigenous languages such as Zulu and Xhosa. Martha and Grant discuss some favorite terms from that part of the world, including lekker, diski, and ubuntu. Also, where’d we get the...
The hosts discuss Ammon Shea’s recent New York Times Magazine column about whether a large vocabulary filled with obscure and unusual words is all that necessary. This is part of a complete episode.
browning n.— «Over the years of visiting Jamaica, I constantly heard the men referring to their favourite choice of girls as the ‘browning’ type. I have always wondered who originally came up with this term? During the early 1970s, while...
Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop.
Well, snap! It's another newsletter from "A Way with Words," the pluperfect radio show. Did you hear the program this past weekend? If not, you missed a brand-new doozy from the boozy two-sy (kidding about...
Fess up: do you have a pet name for your car? How about your computer? Martha and Grant discuss the urge to give nicknames to inanimate objects in our lives. Also, why do we speak of vetting a political candidate? And what in the world is a zoo...