Episodi
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We can pepper our food or pepper our speech. If the mood strikes us, we can be peppy in a pep rally sort of way.
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Episodi mancanti?
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As 2024 comes to a close, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs football team gave us a reason to use the verb "doink."
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We can still reach out the car window to grab a parking ticket, but today, "reaching out" can also mean "pinging" someone to make a connection.
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The words "decimate" and "unique" are quintessential examples of how a word’s meaning can shift from its etymological roots.
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"Ornery" seems like an ordinary enough word, but its link to "ordinary" might surprise people.
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As listeners wait with bated breath, we will not dilly dally or shilly shally to get to this lightning round.
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Looking at late 19th century language peeves can often point to a change in progress, but not always.
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Of all the topics we could cover this week on That's What They Say, we chose these ones over those ones.
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A sea change can now be caused by many things other than the sea, and some of its dramatic effects have been lost in the process.
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We're going to try not to touch the third rail, but we are going to talk about it.
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Major League Baseball playoffs and football tailgate season both mean the smell of hot dogs is in the air.
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We don't encounter petards very often anymore. That’s unless we’re being, metaphorically speaking, “hoisted with our own petard.”
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There are plenty of people out there who see "utilize" as a pretentious substitute for "use." However, some people are completely comfortable utilizing the verb "utilize."
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There’s the “yea” in voting “yea” or “nay," and then there’s the celebratory “Yay!" Oh yeah, there's also "yeah."
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Whoa, whoa, whoa. There are a lot of ways to spell "whoa."
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You could say, "I don't like him singing," or you could say, "I don't like his singing." Believe it or not, some folks have very strong feelings about which of those is correct.
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It's all so grammatically straight forward in the present tense if you plead innocent. Later on though, should you tell people you "pleaded" innocent or "pled" innocent?
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The sign at the grocery store said “can goods,” not “canned goods.”
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We keep track of things, we lose track of things, we run track, and listen to tracks. Sometimes though, we confuse “track” with “tract.”
