Happy Memorial Day to our American listeners and salubrious salutations to everybody else! It's another newsletter from A Way with Words. We're starting the summer season, so this past weekend's show was an "encore presentation...
ride jockey n.— Note: The Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates this use of “jockey” meaning “an operator, handler, or worker” to 1908. «Dodson joined the Louisiana fair Wednesday.…Before working the...
historical rhyme n.— «Take George Bush. By whom I mean George Bush (1796-1859), first cousin of the president’s great-great-great-grandfather. It would be hard to find a more unlikely forebear.…He published his first book...
recaptive n.— «Colonized by the British, these two countries almost have similar historical backgrounds, more so with regards the Trans Atlantic slave trade. That exercise which saw many Africans recaptured on the high seas at the height...