Mary, from Royal Oaks, Michigan, says she once confused a friend by offering to relieve her of snow shoveling duties with the question, “Can I spell you?” This usage of spell, which refers to substituting for a period of time, has been...
Is it a good thing to be a voracious reader? We think so. Just take Shakespeare’s notion of the replenished intellect in Love’s Labour’s Lost. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Voracious Reader”...
If you say, “He stuck his spoon in the wall,” you mean that he died. In German, the person who’s deceased has passed along his spoon, and in Afrikaans, he’s jabbed his spoon into the ceiling. These expressions reflect the...
It’s hard to hold a baby when he’s rutching around. Rutching, or rutsching, which means slipping, sliding, and squirming around, comes from German, and is used in the United States in with a Pennsylvania Dutch history. This is part of a...
What is a road warrior? Besides being a term for someone who travels a lot or commutes a long distance, it’s also used by some to refer to military personnel who are retired on active duty, also known as R.O.A.D. This is part of a complete...
Here’s a slang word for being drunk you might not have heard of: high lonesome. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “High Lonesome” We have in the past talked about the variety of words for drunk. Oh yes, I got...