A man in Carlsbad, California, contends that the word ex for “a former partner” or “a former spouse” sounds too harsh. Is there a better term besides wasband? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
In our Facebook group, listeners share ways to refer to someone who’s lived a half-century or more: 50-plus, member of the 600 Month Club, 29 plus shipping and handling, the 40th anniversary of my 30th birthday, and Jack Benny-plus. This is...
In the 17th century, the verb to bate and the likely related verb, to bat, were used in falconry to mean “to flap wildly.” By the 19th century, to bat was also part of the phrase to bat one’s eyelashes. This is part of a complete...
A listener in Shreveport, Louisiana, reports that after a fine meal, her father used to announce, “I have dined sufficiently, and I have been well surossified.” It’s a joking exaggeration of the word satisfied. In a 1980 article in...
The word traces denotes the long, thin leather straps that secure a horse to a wagon. The expression to kick over the traces, meaning “to become unruly,” refers to the action of a horse literally kicking over those straps and getting all...
Holiday is an old word for a missed spot while painting or wiping a surface. Kelly from Dallas, Texas, learned it from her father, a 28-year Navy veteran, who would point to a skipped patch on the wall and say, “You’ve got a holiday up there.” The...