AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, some whimsy to liven up your vocabulary! RS: Slangman David Burke brings us some words and phrases that, in most cases, have been around a long time, and are just plain fun to say....

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we call on our old friend Grammar Lady, Mary Newton Bruder, to help us answer some listener mail. RS: We start with a question from Kim in Osaka, Japan. She would like to know the...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- etymology meets entomology! The new movie Spider-Man inspired us to untangle some spider-related expressions. RS: Meet a real spider man, not the comic book superhero. Al York i...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how to make a request, as in, Could you help us out? RS: That's what we asked our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California...

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of persuasion, from an expert. RS: Eric Knowles is a social psychologist at the University of Arkansas. He heads a laboratory group that recently held a Symposium on...

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- advice for battling weasels of a wordy sort. RS: Weasels are small, nasty animals. Their reputation gives us slang expressions like weasel words -- language thats deceptive or ev...

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- with the remodeling of the VOA News Now schedule, our thoughts turn to construction-related slang. Or, more precisely, words related to construction that have other meanings in s...

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Has the word minority outgrown its usefulness? RS: Minority means less than half. In the United States, members of non-European racial and ethnic groups are generally referred to a...

AA: Im Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- help for English learners who have trouble pronouncing words with the letters t-h. RS: Our friend Lida Baker joins us with a pronunciation lesson. She writes textbooks for Englis...

INTRO: As long has language has existed, it has been in a constant state of change, and as long there have been dictionaries lexicographers have been trying to keep up with those changes. James Donahower reports on the flood of new words entering the...