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A fun weekly radio show about language seen through culture, history, and family. Co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett talk with callers who have questions and stories about linguistic...
High school students in Alabama share some favorite slang terms. If someone tells you to touch grass, they’re telling you to get a reality c...
If you work in tech support, you might use snarky slang for problems caused by computer users themselves. There’s the acronym PEBCAK, for ex...
There are word nerds, and then there’s the woman who set up a folding chair on sidewalks throughout the country, cheerfully dispensing tips...
How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”?...
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever...
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below you...
Why does the term vegetarian cause so much confusion? Some people assume it means avoiding red meat but still eating chicken. And is there a...
How long can a newly married woman be called a bride? Does bride apply only as long as her wedding day, or does it extend right on through t...
Over the centuries, the meaning of happiness has traveled a long way. Today we speak of the pursuit of happiness, but it used to be that the...
Whether it’s a Rubik’s cube or a round of Wordle, why do so many of us find puzzles irresistible? A new book celebrates the allure and psych...
Every subculture has its own secret lingo, whether you’re talking about surfers, cab drivers, or coffee-shop baristas. A new book uncovers t...
When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a respon...
Why is boxing called the sweet science when it’s obviously such a bruising sport? Also, a mother of five is baffled when her Gen Z kids use...
We tend to take the index of a book for granted, but centuries ago, these helpful lists were viewed with suspicion. Some even worried that i...
An acclaimed poet’s tender poem about holding a newborn for the first time reflects a complex swirl of emotions. And: A caller finds that in...
If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wants advice getting her dad up to speed on...
Ever wonder what medieval England looked and sounded like? In Old English, the word hord meant “treasure” and your wordhord was the treasure...
Do you refer to your dog or cat as “somebody”? As in: When you love somebody that much, you don’t mind if they slobber. In other words, is y...
Sure, there’s winter, spring, summer, and fall. But the seasons in between have even more poetic names. In Alaska, greenup describes a sudde...
Temperature blankets are a visual and tactile mirror of the day’s weather. Knitters use specific shades of yarn to match daily temperatures,...
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant look into the myriad stories behind the word cocktail. Does the drink name come fr...
If there’s a logophile on your gift list, you have lots of choices, including a new trivia game for language-lovers and a murder mystery for...
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant step into the historic streets of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where the simple cry...
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,...
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant explore the ways foreign place names transform on official maps and in local slang...
A sumptuous new collection of poems about specific photographs shows how the moment in time captured by camera can inspire a verbal work of...
Eels, orts, and Wordle! Sweden awarded its most prestigious literary award to a book about…eels. The Book of Eels reveals the mysterious lif...
Whippoorwills, bob whites, and chickadees. How do we decide the names of birds and what to call their calls? Plus, the last syllables of Ark...
Some people work hard to lose their accent in order to fit in. Others may be homesick for the voices they grew up with and try to reclaim th...
Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist...
Does language acquisition correspond with being ambidextrous? A woman notices her polyglot husband takes notes with his right hand for certa...
The Hawaiian word aloha is both a greeting and a goodbye, as well as a profound acknowledgement of the oneness with all living things. Plus,...
Need a slang term that can replace just about anynoun? Try chumpie. If you’re from Philadelphia, you may already know this handy placeholder...
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound...
Why would some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English words when perfectly good Spanish words for the same thing already exist?...
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and natur...
If you like to use emojis, you have some 3800 to choose from—and the organization that approves them is about to announce even more. But do...
A documentary film called My Beautiful Stutter follows youngsters at a summer camp specifically for stutterers. It’s a place for finding acc...
Why is it harder to talk if we don’t move our hands? Even when we’re talking on the phone we feel the need to gesture to aid communication....
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that sta...
You might be surprised to learn that a “hoosier” isn’t necessarily from Indiana. Around the St. Louis, Missouri, area, the term hoosier has...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by e...
Alright, alright, alright! How do some catchphrases become part of the larger vernacular—to the point where people don’t always know the ori...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to t...
Have you lived in your home so long that you don’t notice its flaws? In Sweden, they have a name for this condition: It’s hemmablind—literal...
You know that Yogi Berra quote about how Nobody ever comes here; it’s too crowded? Actually, the first person to use this was actress Suzann...
English spelling is a hot mess, even for native speakers. But as a new book shows, would-be spelling reformers, including Benjamin Franklin...