A woman who immigrated from the Philippines to the United States wonders: If you’re studying a second language and start dreaming in it, does that mean you’ve reached the point of fluency? English has adopted several words from her...
We’ve talked before about that stuff that builds up in your eyes after a night’s sleep, and listeners keep chiming in with more, including googlies, eye-winkers, and from a listener who grew up in the Philippines, morning stars. This is...
If you’re inappropriately focused on the minutiae of a project instead of the bigger picture, you’re said to be bike-shedding. Grant talks about that modern slang term and Martha discusses a word that goes way back in time, right back to...
It’s likely America’s greatest linguistic export: O.K. A caller raised in the Philippines is curious about its origin. The hosts give him an answer, and also point out a familiar word in English that derives from the caller’s...
Cha Cha n.— «Arroyo is pressing ahead with her plans for constitution change, also widely known in the Philippines as “Cha Cha”, short for Charter Change. Under the proposal, the present two parliamentary bodies would be reduced to one...
umbraphile n.— «In the Philippines in “88, however, communist insurgents called off the revolution for a few days so as not to upset the visiting umbraphiles.» —“Under the Spell of the Eclipse” by Phil...