Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.

1167. In this bonus segment that originally ran for Grammarpaloozians last October, we look at the surprising true origins of words that often fool people. We explore why "miniature" originally referred to a red color and not a size; the true, non-factual meaning of "factoid"; and how "hello" only became a common greeting because of the telephone. We also examine the indirect eponym behind the word "gasoline."

Find Jess Zafarris online: Useless Etymology, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram

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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend

Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings

Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson

Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian

Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

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1166. This week, we look the grammar of the Academy Awards and how to avoid an "illogical plot twist" in your sentences. Then, we look at common time-related redundancies like "period of time," the proper way to use "a.m." and "p.m.," and why the abbreviation UTC doesn't actually match its name. 

The Academy Awards segment was written by Jim Norrena.

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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Castria Communications

Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings

Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson

Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian

Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.

1165. Today, we talk with Joan Houston Hall to look at the monumental task of documenting how Americans speak. We look at the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), exploring the unique folk words that survive outside of standard dictionaries and how "word wagons" traveled the country to map the "egg turners," "pogonips," and "oncers" that define our regional identities.

"Dictionary of American Regional English" (DARE)

Support DARE by visiting the University of Wisconsin's giving page.

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🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)

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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend

Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings

Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson

Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian

Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.

1164. This week, we look at the origin of the octothorpe — also known as the pound sign or hashtag — and why it has so many different names. Then, we look at sentence fragments and the secret of "Sir Fragalot" to help you avoid common writing mistakes.

A video of the man who invented snurfing.

Free writing course on LinkedIn Learning. (Happy National Grammar Day!)

The octothorpe segment was written by Karen Lunde.

🔗 Join the Grammar Girl Patreon.

🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)

🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.

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🔗 Take our advertising survey. 

🔗 Get the edited transcript.

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| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend, Maram Elnagheeb

Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings

Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson

Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian

Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.

1163. This week, we look at what it’s like to be a "language detective" with Sali Tagliamonte and how she used her own teenagers as a research lab. We look at a 25-year study on how the phrase "be like" became a permanent fixture of English, why the word "very" is suddenly making a comeback with younger generations, and what happens to our language when we spend all day talking to AI.

Sali Tagliamonte, University of Toronto

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Thank you to the members of the Order of the Aardvark at Patreon:

Linda Cox

Laurel Paul

Russ Skinner

🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)

🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.

🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.

🔗 Take our advertising survey. 

🔗 Get the edited transcript.

🔗 Get Grammar Girl books. 

| HOST: Mignon Fogarty

| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend, Maram Elnagheeb

Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings

Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson

Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian

Podcast Associate: Maram Elnagheeb

| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.

| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.