That's What They Say

When we talk about Middle English, it suggests that we know when English began and when it ends.

There are lots of cards we can still play now, but we’ve lost some good ones too.

If "hunky dory" means the same thing as "right as rain," then we face the question of how right rain is.

While we may know highfalutin language when we hear it, we don't all agree about how to spell "highfalutin" or where it comes from.

We exchange scuttlebutt at the proverbial water cooler, and there's an etymological clue in that.

The little clock we wear on our wrist could be called a clock. Instead, it has long had its own term, being called a watch instead.

Sometimes new slang jumps out in front of you, waving its hands, or thumbs, so that you can’t help but notice it. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you.

We can count fathoms when we’re measuring things. We can also metaphorically fathom or not fathom things.

This is a bespoke segment of That’s What They Say that focuses on “bespoke.”

If it’s up your alley, it might also be up your street. And perhaps it’s down rather than up.

You say "lieutenant," I say “leftenant” but let’s not call the whole thing off.

There’s more than one way to be wonky, and not all of them are bad.

Adverbs don’t always get a lot of love, captured powerfully in the writing tip “Abolish the adverbs.”

We scrimp and we save, and we skimp and we still save, which makes one wonder whether scrimping is different from skimping

Cheesemongers sell cheese, and gossipmongers usually start the gossip or spread it, rather than sell it.

Many of us don’t talk about doornails very often, but sometimes we will when things are really, well, dead.

If you know how the sound "f" worked in Old English, it suddenly isn’t mysterious why the "f" in "leaf" turns into a "v" in the plural form "leaves."

If I say I’m gonna do it, I don’t necessarily mean I’m headed out the door right now to do it.

2025 had lots of people talking about sixes and sevens, but not in the loose ends kind of way.

Next time you’re hanging out with friends, you can debate just how slangy the phrasal verb ‘hang out’ is.

This may be one of the only times that throw pillows, golf, and curling all get wrapped into the same discussion.

When we get schooled at something, we may feel humbled by the experience; but when we win something, we may also say we feel humbled by the experience.

When terror rains down, we suddenly have a spelling question.

The Declaration of Independence could readily have been the Declaration of Independency.

We can be bereaved, we can be bereft, and sometimes we can be both bereaved and bereft.

There are a few different ways to be wonky, some of which are positive and some of which, not so much.

The way some people use "resonate" doesn't resonate with all of our listeners.

If we’re involved in a hurry-scurry retreat or a harum-scarum dash, perhaps things are also helter-skelter.

If you’re not up to snuff, you’re not up to scratch and maybe you don’t get a cigar.

This week’s question has not been a recurring one, by which we mean it has occurred once and not reoccurred.

If it seems unlikely that crotchety people are related, at least etymologically, to those who do crochet, stay tuned.

Given how much we’re talking about AI right now, it’s no surprise that AI-related words featured prominently in this year’s word of the year vote.

Sometimes we don’t realize that we’re using a trademarked term differently from those around us.

We can pepper our food or pepper our speech or, if the mood strikes us, we can be peppy in a pep rally kind of way.

‘Tis the season to talk about "‘tis" and "‘twas" and, while we’re at it, "hap."

If you’re too big for your britches, maybe you’re all mouth and trousers.

The word "pants" has oodles of good linguistic stories to tell, and that’s no pile of pants.