Following up on our earlier conversations about what to call grandparents who move house in order to be nearer their grandkids, Martha proposes trailing grandparents, patterened after the term trailing spouse, which refers to a situation where one spouse gets a great job in another town and the other moves with or after them and looks for a new job, too. This is part of a complete episode.
Linda from Wichita, Kansas, thinks we need a word for that closed-mouth little smile we give to strangers on the street — not a friendly Duchenne smile, just a polite acknowledgment of the other person’s existence. She suggests the word smurm...
Miles from Madison, Wisconsin, is musing about whether there’s a single word or phrase for the time of year when it snows while leaves are still on the trees. One jocular term for snow falling on leaves during that liminal period is snowliage...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter! Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
