Light-hearted conversation with callers from all over about new words, old sayings, slang, family ex
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes
How hot is it? Well, poet Dylan Thomas found lots of memorable ways to describe a heat wave. In one
The adjectives canine and feline refer to dogs and cats. But how does English address other groups o
An ambitious effort to install poetry in national parks around the United States features the work o
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means “money.” In th
If you make a beeline for something, you’re taking the shortest route possible. You’re also mimickin
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’
Names don’t always mean what you think they mean. Main Street in San Francisco is named after busine
One secret to writing well is . . . there is no secret! There's no substitute for simply sitting dow
There are eight major planets, but more than a million minor ones, including asteroids. If you disco
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the youn
When you’re distracted by trying to get the perfect photo at a wedding or fiddling with your camera
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, th
Language from inside a monastery. A Benedictine monk in the Episcopal Church shares terms from his w
One of the most powerful words you’ll ever hear — and one of the most poignant — isn’t in dictionari
You may have a favorite word in English, but what about your favorite in another language? The Spani
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hund
Is there something inherent in English that makes it the linguistic equivalent of the Borg, dominati
Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect th
Images of birds flutter inside lots of English words and phrases, from “nest egg” and “pecking order
