Did you know reading poetry improves your prose? That includes hip-hop lyrics, too. Also, how linguist can guess where you come from based on how you speak. What do you call someone who picks the chocolate out of the trail mix...
What the fox says may be a mystery, but we do know that dogs bark differently around the world. In China, for example, they say not bow-wow but wang wang. Also, the story behind the British tradition of scrumping. It’s not a middle school...
The Western Folklore Journal of 1976 gives us such romantic phrases as “kisses like a cold fish,” “kisses like your brother through a screen,” and “kisses like a wet brick.” This is part of a complete episode...
An 1907 essay on baseball slang supplies a mini-quiz built from extravagant, watery nicknames for a particular baseball pitch. Clues include damp fling, diluted dip, aqueous slant, wet wipe, and perspiration pellet, with more soggy variants such as...
This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, and…kangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a...
weeper n.—Gloss: Related to the meaning of weeper ‘a hole or pipe in a wall to allow water to run off.’ «Six inches of rain between Friday night and Sunday afternoon proved too much for track crews. Crews fought a day-long...