A funny piece in The New Yorker by Jay Martel suggests a new lexicon for the pandemic, including the body mullet worn on Zoom calls (“Business up top, party down below”), and new names for days of the week to reflect the way they all...
Suzanne in Williamsburg, Virginia, but grew up in Southern California, where she used the term go-aheads for the rubber-soled shoes that other people call flip-flops or rubber thongs or zoris. This is part of a complete episode.
Calley from Bowling Green, Kentucky, wonders about the word zonked, meaning “exhausted.” Like the word conk, as in conked out, meaning “fast asleep,” zonk originally had to do with a blow to the head. This is part of a...
Why do we use the plural for pieces of clothing worn below the waist, like trousers, pants, shorts, and jeans? This is part of a complete episode.
A Lakeland, Florida, woman wonders about the use of the term floodin’ or flooding to describe someone wearing pants that are too short, as in, “He’s floodin.'” There are many terms for such ill-fitting pants, including flash...
A caregiver in Calais, Vermont, says an elderly client insists on saying banana bag to mean a fanny pack. Banana bag is a term used by horseback riders to refer to a pouch that hangs by a saddle. This is part of a complete episode.