A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but how accurate is the ... Read more

Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won't find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are d... Read more

The word hipster might seem recent, but it actually originated in the 1930s when it referred to jazz aficionados who wer... Read more

The origins of the peace symbol, why we say someone who’s enthusiastic is gung ho, a tasty spin on stuffed foccacia that... Read more

Is there something inherent in English that makes it the linguistic equivalent of the Borg, dominating and consuming oth... Read more

Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scrib... Read more

So you've long dreamed of writing fiction, but don't know where to begin? There are lots of ways to get started — creati... Read more

In this episode, books for word lovers, from a collection of curious words to some fun with Farsi. • Some people yell “G... Read more

A new online archive of Civil War letters offers a vivid portrait of the everyday lives of enlisted men. These soldiers ... Read more

The edge of the Grand Canyon. A remote mountaintop. A medieval cathedral. Some places are so mystical you feel like you'... Read more

The autocomplete function on your phone comes in handy, of course. But is it changing the way we write and how linguists... Read more

Book recommendations and the art of apology. Martha and Grant share some good reads, including an opinionated romp throu... Read more

A second-generation Filipino-American finds that when he speaks English, his personality is firm, direct, and matter-of-... Read more

How would you like to be welcomed to married life by friends and neighbors descending on your home for a noisy celebrati... Read more

Your first name is very personal, but what if you don't like it? For some people, changing their name works out great bu... Read more

"What has a head like a cat, feet like a cat, a tail like a cat, but isn't a cat?" Answer: a kitten! A 1948 children's j... Read more

Why do we call a frankfurter a "hot dog"? It seems an unsettling 19th-century rumor is to blame. Also, if someone quits ... Read more

If you're not using a dictionary to look up puzzling words as you read them, you're missing out on a whole other level o... Read more

One secret to writing well is . . . there is no secret! There's no substitute for simply sitting down day after day to p... Read more

The highly specialized vocabulary of people who work outdoors, communicating with sled dogs, a word from the sport of ro... Read more