That's What They Say

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.

Who knew two letters could spark so much conversation? This week, we're breaking down the many uses of "um" and why the word is so controversial.