The word shambles originally referred to an abattoir or butchers’ stalls filled with blood and guts. Over time, this word underwent semantic bleaching, and now simply refers more generally to “a mess.” This is part of a complete...
If you need another word for the infinity symbol, there’s always leminscate, from a Greek word meaning “ribbon” or “bow.” This is part of a complete episode.
Christine in Denver, Colorado, is pondering the etiquette of correcting someone’s pronunciation. How do you approach knowing the actual pronunciation of a word, when it’s not the most common one? For example, Christine learned that the...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been reading the novels of author Stephen King’s annoying doppelganger, Stephen Kong, whose titles are like those of King’s, with the exception of one letter. For example, Kong’s first novel recalls the...
Some research suggests that photos of animals tend to capture the attention of humans more readily than photos of plants. Botanists even have a term for “the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment.” They...
Sean in New York City is curious about the expression the business end, as in the business end of a gun. It’s simply “the end of an object that fulfills its function or purpose,” such as the business end of a shovel, the business...