Understanding the varieties of conversational styles can mean the difference between feeling you’re understood and being insulted. “High-involvement” speakers interrupt or talk along with someone else to signal their enthusiasm...
A young caller from Austin, Texas, wonders: Why do we say things like go to the store or go to the park, but leave out the word the when we say go home? In this case, the word home functions as an adverb. The same is true for phrases such as go...
Is the word mac actually an acronym for macaroni and cheese? No, just a shortening of the full three-word-term. If it mac were an acronym, however, it would be a recursive acronym, or one that refers to itself. This is part of a complete episode.
Cutting circumbendibus is that thing you do when you spot someone you really don’t want to talk to, so you dart across an alley or do anything to avoid saying hello. This is part of a complete episode.
“On the QT” means “surreptitiously” or “hush-hush.” Why the letters? Are they an abbreviation? This is part of a complete episode.
A Wisconsinite hopes to unlock the question, “Why do we call it a skeleton key?” This is part of a complete episode.