That's What They Say

When we describe someone as “obtuse,” there are clear negative connotations. The scope of those connotations has been expanding, perhaps because of the…

On this week's That's What They Say, English Professor Anne Curzan fills us in on the American Dialect Society's annual "Word of the Year" vote.The fact…

If someone tells you to leave your keys on the dash, you probably know right where to leave them -- on top of the panel in your car that displays controls…

You’re probably familiar with the phrase “batten down the hatches,” especially if you’ve ever turned on the Weather Channel before a major storm. A…

Last week on That's What They Say, we talked about a peeve over "exasperate" getting used in place of "exacerbate." This week, we looked at two more words…

The words "exacerbate" and "exasperate" look and sound very similar. That could explain why people sometimes say "exasperate" when they mean "exacerbate,"…

Some words sound similar but don't have anything to do with each other. Others sound similar and have everything to do with each other. When a listener…

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, we found ourselves wondering about the history of “aftermath.”A listener named Sybil Kolon put "aftermath" on our…

Our clocks fell back by an hour Sunday morning. As they did, a much-discussed usage issue once again raised its head.Though most of us would agree the…

When it’s “all downhill from here,” there’s some ambiguity about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.A friend of Professor Anne Curzan recently…