A high-schooler asks: Why do we say throw someone under the bus when we’re talking about an act of betrayal. This is part of a complete episode.
A magnificent new book celebrates the richness and diversity of 450 years of written and spoken English in what is now the United States. It’s called The People’s Tongue, and it’s a sumptuous collection of essays, letters, poems...
If you want to describe people who have an overly high opinion of themselves, here’s some handy Spanish slang: In Argentina, you might describe such a person as Tarzán de maceta, or “Tarzan of the flowerpot.” You might also call...
Daniel in Nicholasville, Kentucky, says his grandfather would warn that if he got in trouble, he’d be in deep yogurt. That’s probably just a euphemism for deep doo-doo, deep foo-foo, or an even stronger epithet piled high. This is part...
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality check — but the last thing you’d actually want to touch is dog water! Also, the history of the...
We were invited to Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama, to talk with students about slang. During our previous visit in 2018, we learned the apparently hyperlocal slang term forf meaning “to flake out” or “someone who fails to...