A conversation with etymologist Anatoly Liberman, author of Word Origins and How We Know Them. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin K. Bergen, author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, discusses the science of cursing. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why some people call rock-paper-scissors roshambo, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Linguist John McWhorter says the so-called blaccent is largely about vowel sounds. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Clupea harengus — a.k.a. Atlantic herring — came to signify a diversionary tactic, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The earliest known example of "sh-t show" is from an English-language translation of a 1970s criminal trial in Germany. But what was the word or phrase being translated? X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
On the origin of a skeptical phrase, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When exactly did sad become an insult? X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A peculiar insult from the north of England has the Oxford English Dictionary stumped, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The curious case of a conspiratorial coinage, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Editors at Merriam-Webster, Oxford University Press and Dictionary.com discuss the one word they believe best represents 2015. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the early-20th-century origins of a bizarre food-industry code, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The energetic history of the word sleep. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On a word that was popularized during the 1940s folk movement, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The etymological quirkiness of the word pussy. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On a real beauty of a word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On a recent revelation regarding the history of one our most enduring expletives. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the origins of a very wasteful word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New York City is big, sure, but why an apple? X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the origin of a Spanish-language pejorative, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On “a literary history of the strange expression ‘what is it like?’” — with lexicographer Anne Seaton. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the jittery history of a nervous term, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Seinfeld has been dubbed into other languages, but does it actually translate? X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the etymology of a doofy and goofy word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Are we humans a mostly positive people? Our language says yes. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adding our two cents' worth from the peanut gallery, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conlanger David J. Peterson on the art and craft of inventing languages for Game of Thrones. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On a well-traveled fabric, featuring lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You don't know nuthin' about the double negative. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On the flatulent history of a popular deli staple, featuring lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
