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 Steak house. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/comma-before-jr/transcript | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. | Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. | Peeve Wars card game.  | Grammar Girl books.  | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl | Grammar Girl is part ..read more

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 with "un-" mean "not" and others mean "reversed"— and about the especially interesting words that can mean either (and why). | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/2022-woty/transcript "Un-" Words Segment Written by Edwin L. Battistella, author of "Dangerous, Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President, from Washington to Trump." This segment originally appeared on the OU ..read more

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). | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/world-cup-words/transcript | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. | Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. | Peeve Wars card game.  | Grammar Girl books.  | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) or https://sayhi.chat/grammargirl | Grammar Girl is part of the Quick ..read more

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 words of the year. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/words-or-the-year/transcript My guest is Kory Stamper, author of "Word by Word, the Secret Life of Dictionaries." | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. | Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses. | Peeve Wars card game.  | Grammar Girl books.  | HOST: Mignon Fogarty | VOICE ..read more

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. You'll be shouting "drink-hail!" forevermore. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/wonderful-words-of-christmas/transcript The first segment was written by Kate Burridge and Howard Manns from Monash University. It appears here through a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. | Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. | Watch my LinkedIn Learning ..read more

903.  "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." | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/what-is-a-honeyfuggler/transcript | Ragan Advanced AP Style Webinar The "through" segment was written by Ryan Paulsen who is an avid word nerd and co-host of the etymology podcast "Lexitecture. The "honeyfuggler" segment was written by Edwin L. Battistella, who teaches linguistics and writing at Southern Oregon University in A ..read more

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 2018. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/a-strange-use-of-said/transcript | Ragan Advanced AP Style Webinar | Merriam-Webster Scrabble Website The "said" segment was written by Susan K. Herman, a former editor, language analyst, and language instructor for the U.S. Government. The "kith" segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can ..read more

902. Language reflects culture, so it's no surprise that giving thanks hundreds of years ago was different from giving thanks today. We have the fascinating history. Plus, since "Thanksgiving" is a gerund, we looked at all the interesting things you can do with gerunds in general. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/thank-you-history/transcript The Thanksgiving history segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of the forthcoming book, "Like, Literally Dude," about all the speech habits we ..read more

901. WWII spawned a bunch of new words, including "boffin" and "bonkers." We'll look into the history of these fun words and more in honor of Veterans Day. Plus, we'll talk about why an Australian called her desk being on fire, "a bit of an issue." | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/wwii-words-a-bit-of-an-issue-kleenex/transcript | The segment on "a bit" is written by Isabelle Burke, Research Fellow in Linguistics, the Faculty of Arts, Monash University. It originally appeared on Monash Lens and appears here through a Creative Commons license. | Subscribe to ..read more

900. The @ symbol goes back to the Middle Ages. I explore how it went from an accounting symbol to being widespread online, and I review a bunch of cute names for it in other languages. Also, many style books recently removed the hyphen from dual heritage terms like "Asian American," and I explain why in a segment that includes a tribute to former Los Angeles Times editor Henry Fuhrmann. | Transcript:  https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/where-did-we-get-the-at-symbol/transcript | Advanced AP Style Webinar, Nov. 9. Use the code MACMIL for a $90 discount. | Subscribe to the n ..read more