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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

Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms descr

It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulw

High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass

Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha's savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19

A documentary film called My Beautiful Stutter follows youngsters at a summer camp specifically for

There are word nerds, and then there’s the woman who set up a folding chair on sidewalks throughout

We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from

A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can t

The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don't they rhyme? A lively new book a

Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sig

When there's no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your

How long can a newly married woman be called a bride? Does bride apply only as long as her wedding d

A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card.

Whether it's a Rubik's cube or a round of Wordle, why do so many of us find puzzles irresistible? A

You know that Yogi Berra quote about how Nobody ever comes here; it's too crowded? Actually, the fir

Throwing cheese and shaky cheese are two very different things. In baseball, hard cheese refers to a

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

Old. Elderly. Senior. Why are we so uncomfortable when we talk about reaching a certain point in lif

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

People who hunt treasure with metal detectors have a lingo all their own. Canslaw means the shreds o