Age, Color, Origin, Material
In this favorite from the archives, John discusses some unwritten rules of English that can be remarkably difficult for a learner of English to master. Visit Lexicon Valley...
20 Mar 202328min
One for the Record Books
The word “record” can be broken down into two parts, the '-re' and the '-cord.' But what do those parts even mean? Visit Lexicon Valley. A Booksmart Stud...
6 Mar 202328min
Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?
An encore presentation of a much loved episode about the speech patterns of Bette Davis, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong and countless other Americans of the 1930s. Why do they all sound like that? ...
20 Feb 202333min
Past Master
So many of our words have ugly associations that are particular to a historical time or event. Should we expunge them entirely from our vocabulary? Can we? Visit Lexicon Val...
5 Feb 202327min
Are You Tryna Hear This?
Words that come to mean “want” often start out meaning something else. Take “want,” for example. Visit Lexicon Valley. A Booksmart Studios producti...
22 Jan 202333min
The Ambassadors
Henry James wrote his final novels just over a century ago — and yet somehow they are far less accessible than works written much earlier. Visit Lexicon Valley...
7 Jan 202332min
Apostrophe S
Possession is more or less about ownership, and we denote that in English by adding ’s to the end of a word. But of course there’s far more to the story than just that. Visit ...
26 Des 202228min
Is "Knocked Up" Racist?
There’s a rumor going around social networks that “knocked up” traces back to American slave trading. Is there any evidence for that etymology? Visit Lexicon Valley...
13 Des 202233min
