Claim OwnershipThat's What They Say
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Funner, snuck, and LOL are all things that we're hearing people say these days.That's What They Say is a weekly segment on Michigan Public that explores our changing language. University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan studies linguistics and the history of the English language. Each week she'll discuss why we say what we say with Michigan Public All Things Considered host Rebecca Hector.That's What They Say airs Fridays at 4:45 p.m. and Sundays at 9:35 a.m. on Michigan Public and you can podcast it here.Do you have an English or grammar question? Ask us here!
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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.
It's a time of year when many of us are cooking and eating big meals together which may involve fried food and "small fry."
Now that we can "download" some "mashups," we should talk about how these words have changed over time.
As we merrily roll along, we might be moving and shaking, with maybe some shaping in there too.
1We will share some fun linguistic facts about lickety-split, lickety-split.
From 17th-century England to modern-day gratuities, the evolution of "tip" is a story of linguistic twists and turns that ultimately lead to a surprising conclusion: it's not what you think it stands for.
Historically, bloodletting and bloodshed have been different things, but the line has blurred. Linguist Anne Curzan breaks down the evolution of words.
When you’re smack dab in the middle of something, you can’t be more in the middle of it.
English spelling can be a museum of earlier pronunciations, as we see in words like "night," "through," and "cough."
Given that tuna is a fish, it can seem unnecessary to call that out in the compound tuna fish.
When we eat up or fix up or heal up or hurry up, we’re not actually moving in an upward direction.
Funnily enough, two listeners wrote to us this summer about the phrase funnily enough.
Working out with dumbbells may be a fitness craze now, but the fitness craze that started it all sounds even better.
If you’d just as soon not learn about an eggcorn that some language pundits really dislike, then you might want to stop reading now.
We can be angry or infuriated or outraged or furious or livid or incensed, all of which make us fit to be tied.
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