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单词新解：好吃 Yummy and scrummy |
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日期：2008-04-08 09:10:57
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Yummy and scrummy - childhood terms for the taste of food. I remember using them when I was a kid. They're actually quite old - well, a hundred years or so - they're late 19th century - is the first time I've found a reference to them from 'yum, yum |
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英语中“亏损(to be in the red)”一词的由来 |
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日期：2008-01-21 14:25:30
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Before the age of computers, bookkeepers sat at their desks with two bottles of ink in front of them. One bottle contained black ink and the other one contained red ink. A company's profits were always written down in black ink, but all losses and a |
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Grist and grits |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:21:30
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Word for the WiseJune 01, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Grist and grits We shouldn't be surprised that recent programs on fodder and grist were so much grist for listeners. One correspondent asked if the word grist somehow churned out the edible grits? The i |
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King George III |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:20:08
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Word for the WiseJune 04, 2007 Broadcast Topic: King George III The baby who would grow up to lose the American colonies was born on this date in 1738. He was the first monarch from the House of Hanover to be born in Britain and to call English his m |
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Collocate |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:18:09
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Word for the WiseJune 05, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Collocate A woman highly skeptical of the language used by bureaucrats checked in with us about a word she considered suspect: collocate. She told us she had come across plenty of (and we quote) errors |
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D-Day |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:16:15
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Word for the WiseJune 06, 2007 Broadcast Topic: D-Day 63 years ago today, Allied forces began invading France. It was neither the first nor the last time the military has used the term D Day to refer to the day set for launching a specific tactical o |
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Retention and detention |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:14:32
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Word for the WiseJune 08, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Retention and detention A question about retention versus detention held our curiosity. Since retention refers to an act of retaining and detention to an act of detaining, we'll keep our curiosity movin |
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Peanut gallery |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:12:50
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Word for the WiseJune 12, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Peanut gallery A question about the phrase peanut gallery sent us scrambling back in time. First stop: the 1950s children's television program, The Howdy Doody Show , where the peanut gallery referred t |
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Roller coaster |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:11:13
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Word for the WiseJune 13, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Roller coaster Picture this: June, 1884. The end of the trolley line, the beach at Coney Island. Squeals of excitement as the first ever customers of what inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson dubbed his Swit |
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A favorite word puzzle |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:09:33
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Word for the WiseJune 14, 2007 Broadcast Topic: A favorite word puzzle Listeners who love their word puzzles often challenge us by passing along a favorite. One such puzzle that only recently crossed our desk has in fact been around for decades, but |
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The year of the first fatal aviation accident |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:07:55
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Word for the WiseJune 15, 2007 Broadcast Topic: The year of the first fatal aviation accident We would guess that most people, if asked for the year of the first fatal aviation accident, would have a difficult time hazarding an answer. After all, it' |
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Impressment |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:05:50
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Word for the WiseJune 18, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Impressment The United States Congress declared war on Great Britain on this date in 1812. Although trouble between the two nations had been brewing for years, the injustice that captured the heart of A |
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Blaise Pascal |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:03:51
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Word for the WiseJune 19, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Blaise Pascal Today we remember mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, born on this date in 1623. If you know anything at all about Pascal, you probably know that the French mathematician is one o |
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A leg up |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:02:12
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Word for the WiseJune 20, 2007 Broadcast Topic: A leg up A pig-raising neighbor approached us with a story and a theory on phrase origin. His recent attempt at trying to persuade a pig to move against its will had left our friend physically stymied b |
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Solstice & summer |
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日期：2007-06-30 20:00:46
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Word for the WiseJune 21, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Solstice mdash;the other point is reached on or about December 22ndwe stand still and think not only about the solstice but about summer itself. We're standing still because the word solstice has a roug |
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Troop |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:59:26
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Word for the WiseJune 22, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Troop More than one person has asked for the story behind the word troop. In short, the question comes down to this: if the plural troops is synonymous with the plural soldiers, is the singular troop th |
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English words with a Slavic origin |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:57:53
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Word for the WiseJune 25, 2007 Broadcast Topic: English words with a Slavic origin Civil war broke out in the country then known as Yugoslavia on this date in 1991. Over the ensuing 16 years, the term Yugoslavia has faded from use, replaced by (among |
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Fungo |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:56:25
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Word for the WiseJune 26, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Fungo With the major league baseball season in full swing, we can't pass up the opportunity to acknowledge the 1819 birth anniversary of Abner Doubleday. Although Doubleday was once credited as the man |
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Terms of 1844 |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:54:56
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Word for the WiseJune 27, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Terms of 1844 It was on this date in 1844 that the first ever assassination of a U.S. presidential candidate occurred. 163 years ago today, Joseph Smith was shot and killed while he sat in an Illinois j |
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Ponere offspring |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:53:15
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Word for the WiseJune 29, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Ponere offspring A listener in India asked about any antonyms of the word postpone. If to postpone something is to hold it back to a later time, why do we not use the word prepone to talk about scheduli |
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Terms of the United Kingdom |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:51:28
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Word for the WiseMay 01, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Terms of the United Kingdom Today we mark the tercentennialthe 300th anniversaryof the Acts of Union. The Acts of Union of 1707 names the two acts, one by the Parliament of England and the other by the P |
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Calling the question |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:49:46
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Word for the WiseMay 02, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Calling the question Robert's Rules Day falls today; our first order of business is to note that the parliamentary celebration coincides with (well, actually is scheduled for) the 1837 birth anniversary |
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Making bones |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:48:00
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Word for the WiseMay 03, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Making bones We're guessing that only someone with a bone to pick would challenge us to explain why the idiomatic making bones is more familiar in its negative form making no bones about somethingthan in |
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I ching |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:46:18
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Word for the WiseMay 04, 2007 Broadcast Topic: I ching A question about the origin of the I ching left us groping to divine the truth behind (and within) that classic book of Chinese cosmology known variously as the Book of changes and Classic of cha |
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Beaufort's scale |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:44:49
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Word for the WiseMay 07, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Beaufort's scale Today we take our measurea whirlwind measureof Beaufort Scale Day. Historians may know the day falls on the birth anniversary of Sir Francis Beaufort in 1774; meteorologists and seafarin |
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Antoine Laurent Lavoisier & National Teacher Day |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:43:15
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Word for the WiseMay 08, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Antoine Laurent Lavoisier quot;We need no more scientists in France, while mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange mourned his friend with these words: it took them only an instant to cut off that head, and |
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Room and board |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:38:40
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Word for the WiseMay 10, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Room and board It's not much of a reach to combine a question about the phrase room and board with an inquiry about the term boardinghouse reach. So pardon us while we serve up a few answersfamily stylef |
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Coarse, vulgar, and obscene |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:37:02
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Word for the WiseMay 11, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Coarse, vulgar, and obscene Today we try our darnedest to offend good taste and/or morals. Don't worry about alerting the FCC; we promise to confine our offenses to discussing what is offensive, not to t |
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Variolation & vaccination |
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日期：2007-06-30 19:35:33
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Word for the WiseMay 14, 2007 Broadcast Topic: Variolation quot;pox) less than successful. It was Doctor Edward Jenner's genius to scientifically satisfy his suspicion (and observation) that humans who contracted the much less dangerous cowpox gained |
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