Joan in Bettendorf, Iowa, has always called the rear compartment of a station wagon the wayback. Did she invent the term? No, and the last time we discussed this term on the show, listeners from all over chimed in to say they use it, too. Some people call it the back-back. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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