For German speakers, Sauregurkenzeit is that period of time in late summer when nothing much is happening, known in English as the dog days. The German term derives from sauer, “sour,” and Gurke “cucumber,” plus Zeit or...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski unleashes some quizzical canine conundrums. For example, if you playfully tap a dog on the nose, you boop him. Change one letter and you have the doggolingo term for what happens when dogs stick out their tongues but then...
Max from La Jolla, California, named his beloved rescue dog Snaggletooth. A snaggletooth is “a broken tooth” or “a tooth projects beyond the mouth.” It’s from the same linguistic root as snag, originally “a tree...
If a big dog knocks you over, the joking term for that mishap is dogberg, a bit of slang inspired by the name of professional wrestler Bill Goldberg, who liked to finish off his opponents with his signature move called the spear, which involved...
What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...
Bill in Surrey, New Hampshire, says his father used to tell him to hold tightly to something, such as a rope, by urging him to muckle on to it. He rarely heard the word again until a Scotsman visited his farm and admiringly noted that Bill’s...