Marianne from Valdosta, Georgia, is stumped about how to pronounce the term bona fides. It means “authentic credentials,” as in literary bona fides, and comes from Latin bona fides, literally “good faith.” In the United...
In another episode, we discussed pigeon pair, or “a daughter and son,” an allusion to the old belief that pigeons and doves always have two chicks, one of each sex. A millionaire’s family or a million-dollar family is “a...
Nathan from San Antonio, Texas, reports that his parents used to use the word crisp to mean “tired” or “cranky.” This usage seems to have originated on U.S, college campuses in the 1970s. This is part of a complete episode.
A couple of Southernisms you can use to praise the cook: I could eat this with my toe in the fire and I could eat this with one foot in the milk bucket. This is part of a complete episode.
Quiz Guy John Chaneski is a fan of fan names — those nicknames given to devotees of a particular show or performer — so much so that he’s collected a whole puzzleful of them. Justin Bieber fans, for example, are known as Beliebers, so what do...
Carolyn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been teaching her grandchildren some conventional French gestures to tease their grandfather. She’s using the book Beaux Gestes: A Guide to French Body Talk (Bookshop|Amazon) by renowned French scholar...