Carol in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, recalls her mother using the word meckle to mean “mess around with,” as in stop meckling with your cereal and eat it! Or if a sewing project was too complicated, she’d say there was too much meckling involved...
If there’s a logophile on your gift list, you have lots of choices, including a new trivia game for language-lovers and a murder mystery for the word-obsessed. Plus, if someone calls you a schmoozer, should you be flattered or insulted? And if...
Mona from Riverview, Florida, grew up understanding that the word schmooze, which comes from Yiddish, meant simply “to mingle and chat” at parties, but when she fondly referred to her friend as a schmoozer, the friend was insulted, assuming that a...
Holly from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is curious about her mother’s use of the phrase Maybe she isn’t pretty to indicate that someone was very pretty indeed. It may be a form of litotes, or ironic negation, as in the case of not bad, which...
Colin from Los Angeles, California, is pondering the expression make no bones about it, which suggests the speaker is talking or acting with no hesitation whatsoever. The saying is inspired by the idea of literally finding bones in one’s food, since...
Allison in Redwood City, California, says her family has long used the word zorbit to refer to what happens when someone playfully blows a raspberry on your cheek or belly to make a funny sound. That’s probably their version of a fanciful word first...
