Sure, there’s winter, spring, summer, and fall. But the seasons in between have even more poetic names. In Alaska, greenup describes a sudden, dramatic burst of green after a long, dark winter. And there are many, many terms for a cold snap...
Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gestures, that are still in use today. Plus, how do speakers of different languages distinguish similar shades and tints of colors such as red, yellow...
Amelia in Arlington, Virginia, was surprised to hear her wife, who is from Iowa, use the phrase getting the goody out to describe someone sporting a well-worn pair of sweatpants, indicating that they were continuing to get the most out of that...
Grant’s is a trivia-obsessed family. He and his wife participate in Learned League, an online trivia competition, and their son Guthrie now participates in Academic League, a high-school quiz league in San Diego, featuring questions from the...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski brings a bunch of brain teasers that he calls “Family Secrets.” It’s inspired by the hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Disney film Encanto. What about the secrets other families...
Dexter in Clintonville, Alabama, reports that his Minnesota-born wife was baffled after she sneezed and he responded with Scat cat! Across the American South, this phrase and variations of it serve as an informal response when someone sneezes. Other...