Rebecca from San Diego, California, wants to know the origin of the verb to bogart, as in, “Don’t bogart that salad dressing!” meaning “don’t hog it” or “don’t use it all up.” It’s associated the tough-guy manner of matinee idol Humphrey Bogart. This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...