A Strange Use of 'Said.' Kith and Kin. N...

1153. This week, we look at the high-stakes world of Scrabble tournaments with John Chew, head of the North American Scrabble Players Association. We look at the strict etiquette of the tile bag, why professional players count tiles, and how the official word list is managed for ... Show More

1152. This week, we look at what a baker's dozen is and why it's actually 13. We also look at other "dozen" phrases, like "devil's dozen" and "banker's dozen." Finally, we tackle the inconsistency of making words that end in O plural, from "tomatoes" to "rodeos."🔗 Share your fam ... Show More

1151. This week, we look at the deep history of words with Doug Harper, creator of Etymonline. We look at the "gravitational" link between digging a grave and having a grave problem, the surprising 1839 origin of "OK," and why some of our favorite word stories are actually "folk ... Show More

Have you ever wondered what’s up with double negation, the history of gender neutral pronouns, or why swearing is taboo? Then get ready for this week’s guest, linguist Anne Curzan! Anne and Jonathan talk about how the English language has evolved since the 1300s and how our words ... Show More

Download ELSA for free and get 7 days pro membership for free: https://bit.ly/ELSAxTHINKINGINENGLISH ⁠ ⁠Get up to 85% off of ELSA lifetime membership by going to elsaspeak.com/promocode and use my code THINK85⁠ TikTok is changing the way we speak and use English. It is contr ... Show More