Members of our Facebook group are inventing funny names for Greek gods by mispronouncing familiar words with the accent on the wrong syllable, such as Episodes /eh-PIH-suh-deez/, god of continuing stories, and Lemonades /leh-moe-NAH-deez/, god of...
The word filibuster has a long and colorful history, going back to the days when pirates roamed the high seas. Today it refers to hijacking a piece of legislation. Plus, the language of yoga teachers: When doing a guided meditation, you may hear...
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...
On our Facebook page, listeners are sharing colloquial sayings they’ve heard used to describe events. These phrases include I haven’t had so much fun since the horse kicked Father, I haven’t had so much fun since the hogs et my...
On our Facebook group, listeners are pondering whether there’s a word for buying an object and then using it for a completely different purpose — the treadmill that ends up as a clothes rack, for example. The Japanese expression mikka bozu, or...
On our Facebook group, listeners play a game imagining what kind of plants might grow in a garden tended by various types of people. For example, a veterinarian might plant dogwood and catnip, and an ophthalmologist could plant irises. What might a...