Mary Gordon in Austin, Texas, shares a delightful story about her elderly father and a handful of vegetables, which raises the question: what’s the plural of squash? Squashes? Or squash? This is part of a complete episode.
If you’re living with a chronic illness or disability, you often have to ration your physical and mental energy. And if that illness isn’t readily apparent to others, it can be hard to explain how debilitating that process can be. On her...
In Appalachia, the term handful of minutes refers to something small, as in, “She’s no bigger than a handful of minutes.” This is part of a complete episode.
The Shakespeare Insult Generator tipped us off to a handful of booty-themed disses, including rump-fed, which refers to someone who is less than callipygian. This is part of a complete episode.
Dear friends and fans, A Way with Words starts a new season this weekend and we need your help to raise $50,000 to cover costs. To keep enjoying new episodes of the show, give now. Surprising Reasons to Help Here’s a surprising fact: A...
Forensic linguistics, the subject of a recent New Yorker piece by Jack Hitt (in full here, is a useful tool in the courtroom. Linguists like Roger Shuy, who’s written a handful of books on the subject, have managed to solve criminal cases by...