912. We look at who the Teddy is in "teddy bears" and reveal why the Brothers Grimm, from fairytales, were also massively important in linguistics.

911. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we cover a bunch of interesting things about labels such as "Jr.," "Sr.," and "III." Plus, we look at the origin of the names Carl's Jr. and Ruth's Chris S

910. The final Grammar Girl word-of-the-year vote came down to "inflation" and "quiet quitting." We look at the interesting arguments voters made for both. Plus, we look at why some words that start

909. In honor of 2023, well talk about writing dates. And then we talk about a fascinating study about how COVID has changed the way we think about certain words.

908. You had word-related questions after watching the World Cup. We have answers! And for the holidays, we look at the origin of toasting with wine (and why it actually IS related to toasted bread).

907. The fabulous Kory Stamper, author of "Word by Word," joins me this week to talk about words of the year: how they get chosen, what makes each one different, and what people yearn for in their wor

906. A'wassailing. Noel. Mistletoe. Trolling the ancient Yuletide carol, and more. We look into the wonderful words of Christmas and their origins as delightful as a Christmas cookie.

905. Bonus Episode! You helped solve the mystery of my father's favorite childhood book. I also share quick and dirty tips from my email newsletter, my favorite social media posts, and some of my favo

904. "Through" and "throughout" may seem interchangeable, but they're not. We have some creative memory tricks to help you remember the difference. Plus, we have fun with the word "honeyfuggler."

903. A listener heard some jargon, and then got annoyed by "said" jargon, so we explored why. Plus, who the heck are your kith? And finally, we got excited about the first new Scrabble words since 20