In a word: That all sounds so foreign to me

In Italy I fancied myself one of the cognoscenti (people in the know), and was living la dolce vita (the sweet life).

In a word: ‘Grams’ — the Russian nesting dolls of language

In a word: Know your nyms — words that describe words

Back when Mr. Leon Leonwood Bean was building his business in Freeport, the lumber dealer in town was Mr. Woodman, making his name an aptronym, or a name that's appropriate for the type of work one does.

In a word: Ways for describing the passage of time

The Buick Century, a car model manufactured on and off since 1936, was so named because it could hit 100 miles per hour back in the day.

In a word: Computer culture gives common words a reboot

In a word: ‘Murder,’ ‘enormity’ and other words in the news

In a word: Using slang makes you part of the gang

By the '80s everything was totally tubular. I had a great place with a bodacious view where I could hang loose.

In a word: The phonetic alphabet and the silent treatment

In a word: Consider the longsuffering, fastvanishing hyphen

It's been praised, vilified and most recently banished. The little hyphen's future seems illfated despite having made a lot of connections over the years.

In a word: Idioms! They’re all a bunch of idioms!

Lewiston wordmeister Jim Witherell explores our language's many word phrases that make no sense unless you know what they mean, catch my drift?