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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Light-hearted conversation with callers from all over about new words, old sayings, slang, family ex

Episodes

Total: 775

When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising sid

How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with

We tend to take the index of a book for granted, but centuries ago, these helpful lists were viewed

If you’re ever near a sundial, step closer and look for a message. Many sundials bear haunting, poet

If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wan

Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the

Ever wonder what medieval England looked and sounded like? In Old English, the word hord meant "trea

Novelist Charles Dickens and the musician Prince were very different types of artists, but they also

Do you refer to your dog or cat as “somebody”? As in: When you love somebody that much, you don’t mi

In just seconds, online text generators and chatbots can produce whole paragraphs of sophisticated p

Sure, there’s winter, spring, summer, and fall. But the seasons in between have even more poetic nam

Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gest

Eels, orts, and Wordle! Sweden awarded its most prestigious literary award to a book about…eels. The

Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill

Big Bang - 12 December 2022

2022/12/12

A savory Sicilian sausage roll is always a hit for the holidays. This dish goes by a long list of na

Some people work hard to lose their accent in order to fit in. Others may be homesick for the voices

A new book about how animals perceive their environment reveals immense worlds beyond our own. A bee

Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of thes

While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of lett

Need a slang term that can replace just about any noun? Try chumpie. If you're from Philadelphia, yo