When does a word’s past make it too sensitive to use in the present? In contra dancing, there’s a particular move that dancers traditionally call a gypsy. But there’s a growing recognition that many people find the term gypsy...
In a nutshell refers to something that’s “put concisely,” in just a few words. The phrase goes all the way back to antiquity when the Roman historian Pliny described a copy of The Iliad written in such tiny script that it could fit...
Sharing a secret language. Did you ever speak in gibberish with a childhood pal, adding extra syllables to words so the adults couldn’t understand what you were saying? Such wordplay isn’t just for kids—and it’s not just limited to...