Here’s a handy word from the west midlands of England: yampy, meaning “foolish” or “daft.” It may be adapted from the Scots word yamp, meaning “noisy” or “talkative,” or from yamph, “to yelp like a small dog.” In any case, if you’re under lots of pressure, you might say you’re being driven yampy as a box of frogs.This is part of a complete episode.
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...
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