A Way with Words

Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop.Did you ...

In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or ...

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. As ...

[This episode first aired December 19, 2008.]There's nothing like an oddly phrased headline to brighten your day. How about 'Actor Sent to ...

This week, we're going through the e-mail bag. Here's a savory, sensuous one. It's from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado. Stacey grew up out ...

[This episode originally aired December 13, 2008.]The edition of the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus is chock-full of synonyms, of ...

What's a 'Hobson's Choice'?If you're facing a Hobson's choice, you don't really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation ...

Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a ...

[This episode was first aired November 22, 2008.]Feeling fankled? It's a Scots English word that means 'messed up' or 'confused.' In this ...

What The Cluck, Part 2What does the expression egg on have to do with chickens? Nothing, actually. Martha explains why, and tells the story ...

Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say 'no,' your child hears 'maybe,' and if you say ...

This week, we received an email from Randy in San Diego. Randy writes: 'I recently got myself three hens for the back yard as a hobby that ...

Sure, there's 'Grandma' and 'Grampa,' but there's also 'Gammy,' 'Bumpy,' 'Dadoo,' 'Gre-Gre,' 'Kiki,' 'Kerkel,' 'Monga,' 'Nee-Nee,' 'Pots,' ...