http://www.odeo.com/channels/6388- GrantBarrett no 40 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:22:00 -0800 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:22:00 -0800 http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25423388-Anaheim-Azusa-and-Cu-ca-monga-9-Nov-2009 All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors' calls: 'Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!' Also, the origin of the military slang term 'cumshaw,' tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English, and the funny story behind why plain-talking Texans say, 'We're going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.' A trip to the California State Railroad Museum http://www.csrmf.org/ has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual -- in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world http://mic-ro.com/metro/announcements.html. For different type of stroll down mem'ry lane, check out Mel Blanc's version of a train conductor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE. Does anyone still say 'Shut UP!' to mean 'No way!'? A forty-something riding instructor says this Seinfeldian locution confuses some of her younger students. A caller wond... All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors' calls: 'Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!' Also, the origin of the military slang term 'cumshaw,' tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English, and the funny story behind why plain-talking Texans say, 'We're going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.' A trip to the California State Railroad Museum http://www.csrmf.org/ has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual -- in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world http://mic-ro.com/metro/announcements.html. For different type of stroll down mem'ry lane, check out Mel Blanc's version of a train conductor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE. Does anyone still say 'Shut UP!' to mean 'No way!'? A forty-something riding instructor says this Seinfeldian locution confuses some of her younger students. A caller wonders why his North Carolina-born partner uses the phrase 'I'd have liked to' instead of 'I almost' or 'I nearly,' as in 'I'd have liked to died laughing.' Quiz Guy John Chaneski starts a whole lotta shakin' with his puzzle about dances with rhyming names. How about the dance that involves many missteps while dancing to the music of Johann Strauss? Is 'ouch!' a universal word, or does what you say when you stub your toe depend on what language you speak? A Seattle-area veteran remembers that in Vietnam he and others like him were known as 'cumshaw artists.' They were the guys who scared up and permanently borrowed whatever their unit needed -- gasoline, vehicle parts, or whiskey for a party. He's always wondered about the appellation. The phrase 'Let's talk about how the cow ate the cabbage means' 'Let's talk frankly.' The hosts talk plainly about the naughty tale that may be behind it. It's never too late to start learning Latin, a language that will deepen your understanding and appreciation of English. Martha offers tips on how to begin: 'Getting Started with Latin' http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/preview01.php, by William E. Linney, and 'Virent Ova! Viret Perna!' http://www.amazon.com/Virent-Viret-Perna-Green-Latin/dp/0865165556 ('Green Eggs and Ham') by Dr. Seuss, with translation help from Jennifer and Terence Tunberg. A riddle: There's a place where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow's in the middle. Where is it? The word 'scarf,' meaning 'to eat rapidly and greedily,' has a long, winding history. Grant helps a listener unravel it. A die-hard Tyler Perry fan is curious about an emphatic expression she's heard in some of his movies: 'Hell-to-the-no.' What's up with the extra words? A second-generation Mexican-American wonders how much the English language is being influenced by Spanish, especially after a misunderstanding when he turned to his date in the passenger seat and asked if she wanted to 'get down.' Another riddle: I stand on one foot, and my heart is in my head. Who am I? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors' calls: 'Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!' Also, the origin of the military slang term 'cumshaw,' tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English, and the funny story behind why plain-talking Texans say, 'We're going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.' A trip to the California State Railroad Museum http://www.csrmf.org/ has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual -- in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world http://mic-ro.com/metro/announcements.html. For different type of stroll down mem'ry lane, check out Mel Blanc's version of a train conductor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE. Does anyone still say 'Shut UP!' to mean 'No way!'? A forty-something riding instructor says this Seinfeldian locution confuses some of her younger students. A caller wonders why his North Carolina-born partner uses the phrase 'I'd have liked to' instead of 'I almost' or 'I nearly,' as in 'I'd have liked to died laughing.' Quiz Guy John Chaneski starts a whole lotta shakin' with his puzzle about dances with rhyming names. How about the dance that involves many missteps while dancing to the music of Johann Strauss? Is 'ouch!' a universal word, or does what you say when you stub your toe depend on what language you speak? A Seattle-area veteran remembers that in Vietnam he and others like him were known as 'cumshaw artists.' They were the guys who scared up and permanently borrowed whatever their unit needed -- gasoline, vehicle parts, or whiskey for a party. He's always wondered about the appellation. The phrase 'Let's talk about how the cow ate the cabbage means' 'Let's talk frankly.' The hosts talk plainly about the naughty tale that may be behind it. It's never too late to start learning Latin, a language that will deepen your understanding and appreciation of English. Martha offers tips on how to begin: 'Getting Started with Latin' http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/preview01.php, by William E. Linney, and 'Virent Ova! Viret Perna!' http://www.amazon.com/Virent-Viret-Perna-Green-Latin/dp/0865165556 ('Green Eggs and Ham') by Dr. Seuss, with translation help from Jennifer and Terence Tunberg. A riddle: There's a place where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow's in the middle. Where is it? The word 'scarf,' meaning 'to eat rapidly and greedily,' has a long, winding history. Grant helps a listener unravel it. A die-hard Tyler Perry fan is curious about an emphatic expression she's heard in some of his movies: 'Hell-to-the-no.' What's up with the extra words? A second-generation Mexican-American wonders how much the English language is being influenced by Spanish, especially after a misunderstanding when he turned to his date in the passenger seat and asked if she wanted to 'get down.' Another riddle: I stand on one foot, and my heart is in my head. Who am I? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-08,25423388 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:22:00 -0800 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25390865-Shivaree-4-Nov-2009 Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette. You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual: My dad woke us up one night, about 8 o'clock. He said don't be alarmed. There's going to be gunfire and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of people in the house and there's going to be a party. This is probably late spring. And lo and behold, next thing we knew there were trucks driving up and women coming in with food and we heard people shooting off guns and men doing what men do. It was a giant party. And I said, 'Daddy what is this?' He said, 'It's a shivaree.' Well, it turns out that shivarees aren't that unusual after all. Or at least, a lot of you have had experiences with these raucous surprise parties for newlyweds. Amanda from Livingston, Montana says that shivarees were quite common when she was growing up in rural western South Dakota in 1960's and 70's. 'They u... Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette. You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual: My dad woke us up one night, about 8 o'clock. He said don't be alarmed. There's going to be gunfire and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of people in the house and there's going to be a party. This is probably late spring. And lo and behold, next thing we knew there were trucks driving up and women coming in with food and we heard people shooting off guns and men doing what men do. It was a giant party. And I said, 'Daddy what is this?' He said, 'It's a shivaree.' Well, it turns out that shivarees aren't that unusual after all. Or at least, a lot of you have had experiences with these raucous surprise parties for newlyweds. Amanda from Livingston, Montana says that shivarees were quite common when she was growing up in rural western South Dakota in 1960's and 70's. 'They usually took place long enough after the wedding that the happy couple had let down their guard,' she writes. 'The revelers would turn up late in the evening in a noisy caravan and take over the house, rousing the hosts out of bed. Good-natured chaos ensued; shortsheeting beds, sprinkling cornflakes in the beds, and tearing the labels off the canned goods in the cupboards while the hosts were distracted by entertaining the crowd. It was a fun, harmless way to welcome the new couple into the community of adults.' Guess that's one way to do it. We got another email from John. He's a dairy farmer in Eleva, Wisconsin. At the age of 40, John took his sweetheart took a trip to Colorado. While there, they ended up getting married. 'Upon our return,' he writes, 'as news of our marriage leaked out, the farming community felt that they were deprived of a party. And thus plans for a shivaree were hatched. 'It happened in the early evening, after the milking chores had been done, on the night of a blue moon in August, 1985. A stream of pick-up trucks and cars paraded up our 3/4 mile-long driveway. In the back of some trucks were men shooting guns. In another, two men held a large lumber mill saw blade between them on a piece of pipe, striking it as if it were a large cymbal. 'After the initial shock wore off, I asked what was expected of me. The reply was that a quick trip to town was in order for cold beer for the men who lounged outside in the cool summer night air. Meanwhile the women took over the house and set up a buffet meal. 'The guests provided everything, from the table cloth, food service ware, napkins, coffee pot ready to plug in, food of all sort, and gifts to celebrate our marriage. After a memorable evening the women cleaned up and took with them all trash and evidence of the event. 'And again, Evelyn and I were left in the splendid evening of a blue moon in Wisconsin, our hearts filled with gratitude for the warmth and camaraderie of a small farming community.' Not to mention for the women doing all the cooking and cleaning, right? Well, we appreciate the warmth and camaraderie of our virtual community of language lovers, and we're glad you're a part of it. We hope you'll drop us at line any you have language on your mind. That address is words@waywordradio.org. Or pop by our discussion forum. That's at waywordradio.org/discussion. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette. You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual: My dad woke us up one night, about 8 o'clock. He said don't be alarmed. There's going to be gunfire and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of people in the house and there's going to be a party. This is probably late spring. And lo and behold, next thing we knew there were trucks driving up and women coming in with food and we heard people shooting off guns and men doing what men do. It was a giant party. And I said, 'Daddy what is this?' He said, 'It's a shivaree.' Well, it turns out that shivarees aren't that unusual after all. Or at least, a lot of you have had experiences with these raucous surprise parties for newlyweds. Amanda from Livingston, Montana says that shivarees were quite common when she was growing up in rural western South Dakota in 1960's and 70's. 'They usually took place long enough after the wedding that the happy couple had let down their guard,' she writes. 'The revelers would turn up late in the evening in a noisy caravan and take over the house, rousing the hosts out of bed. Good-natured chaos ensued; shortsheeting beds, sprinkling cornflakes in the beds, and tearing the labels off the canned goods in the cupboards while the hosts were distracted by entertaining the crowd. It was a fun, harmless way to welcome the new couple into the community of adults.' Guess that's one way to do it. We got another email from John. He's a dairy farmer in Eleva, Wisconsin. At the age of 40, John took his sweetheart took a trip to Colorado. While there, they ended up getting married. 'Upon our return,' he writes, 'as news of our marriage leaked out, the farming community felt that they were deprived of a party. And thus plans for a shivaree were hatched. 'It happened in the early evening, after the milking chores had been done, on the night of a blue moon in August, 1985. A stream of pick-up trucks and cars paraded up our 3/4 mile-long driveway. In the back of some trucks were men shooting guns. In another, two men held a large lumber mill saw blade between them on a piece of pipe, striking it as if it were a large cymbal. 'After the initial shock wore off, I asked what was expected of me. The reply was that a quick trip to town was in order for cold beer for the men who lounged outside in the cool summer night air. Meanwhile the women took over the house and set up a buffet meal. 'The guests provided everything, from the table cloth, food service ware, napkins, coffee pot ready to plug in, food of all sort, and gifts to celebrate our marriage. After a memorable evening the women cleaned up and took with them all trash and evidence of the event. 'And again, Evelyn and I were left in the splendid evening of a blue moon in Wisconsin, our hearts filled with gratitude for the warmth and camaraderie of a small farming community.' Not to mention for the women doing all the cooking and cleaning, right? Well, we appreciate the warmth and camaraderie of our virtual community of language lovers, and we're glad you're a part of it. We hope you'll drop us at line any you have language on your mind. That address is words@waywordradio.org. Or pop by our discussion forum. That's at waywordradio.org/discussion. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-03,25390865 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:01:00 -0800 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25390869-Bless-Your-Heart-2-Nov-2009 This week, it's backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like 'How nice for you,' 'Oh, interesting!' and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, 'Bless her heart.' Also this week, free reign vs. free rein, the origin of the one-finger salute, and what it means if a Frenchman has big ankles. And 'Jeopardy!' champion Ken Jennings stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz. You've been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you've used them, too. A discussion on Ask Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/133910/Bless-your-heart-and-other-backhanded-phrases prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated snark. By the way, if you want a fancy word for veiled criticisms like 'bless her heart' and 'let me know how that works out,' it's 'charientism,' from a Greek word that means 'the expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner.' Is it free reign or free rein? Ruling or riding? The 'back forty' ref... This week, it's backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like 'How nice for you,' 'Oh, interesting!' and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, 'Bless her heart.' Also this week, free reign vs. free rein, the origin of the one-finger salute, and what it means if a Frenchman has big ankles. And 'Jeopardy!' champion Ken Jennings stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz. You've been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you've used them, too. A discussion on Ask Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/133910/Bless-your-heart-and-other-backhanded-phrases prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated snark. By the way, if you want a fancy word for veiled criticisms like 'bless her heart' and 'let me know how that works out,' it's 'charientism,' from a Greek word that means 'the expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner.' Is it free reign or free rein? Ruling or riding? The 'back forty' refers to a remote area of a large piece of land. Grant has the origin of that phrase. What do English bowmen, the French, and lopped-off digits have to do with the classic middle-finger insult? Absolutely nothing. A San Diego truck driver wonders about the true origin of the one-finger salute. There's a great debunking of the English archers story here: http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp. Quiz Guy John Chaneski says he's been visiting some 'niche' high schools, all of which have the word 'High' in them, maybe in reverse of a standard phrase. How about this one: 'The school where they study phantoms, ghosts, and apparitions.' That would be 'Spirits High.' A caller who grew up in Australia has a question about wedding-invitation etiquette in the U.S. She wonders: Shouldn't an invitation refer to a daughter's 'marriage with' the groom rather than a 'marriage to' him? A man who works nights in a mortuary in Brookings, Oregon is curious about the origin of--what else?--'graveyard shift.' Quick, picture a berry: Is it blue? Red? Then where'd we get the English expression 'brown as a berry'? It's 'Slang for $500.' All-time 'Jeopardy!' Champion Ken Jennings tackles his next logical challenge, the 'A Way with Words' slang quiz. Ken puzzles over the meaning of 'brummagem' and 'pluck of a pig,' and tries to guess an usual meaning for the term daylight. More about Ken at his website, www.ken-jennings.com http://www.ken-jennings.com/index.html. In many neighborhoods, the night before Halloween is the night when pranksters run around wreaking all kinds of mischief--toilet-papering houses, spraying windows with shaving cream, ringing doorbells and then running away. A Connecticut woman remembers calling that night 'Goosey Night,' and is surprised when friends call it 'Mischief Night.' In fact, that prankfest goes by lots of other names, including 'Corn Night,' 'Picket Night,' and 'Devil Night.' In English, we say that someone who's egotistical has a 'big head.' But in French, according to a caller, the person is said to have 'big ankles.' Why ankles? Grant shares a 'quirklum.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. This week, it's backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like 'How nice for you,' 'Oh, interesting!' and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, 'Bless her heart.' Also this week, free reign vs. free rein, the origin of the one-finger salute, and what it means if a Frenchman has big ankles. And 'Jeopardy!' champion Ken Jennings stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz. You've been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you've used them, too. A discussion on Ask Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/133910/Bless-your-heart-and-other-backhanded-phrases prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated snark. By the way, if you want a fancy word for veiled criticisms like 'bless her heart' and 'let me know how that works out,' it's 'charientism,' from a Greek word that means 'the expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner.' Is it free reign or free rein? Ruling or riding? The 'back forty' refers to a remote area of a large piece of land. Grant has the origin of that phrase. What do English bowmen, the French, and lopped-off digits have to do with the classic middle-finger insult? Absolutely nothing. A San Diego truck driver wonders about the true origin of the one-finger salute. There's a great debunking of the English archers story here: http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp. Quiz Guy John Chaneski says he's been visiting some 'niche' high schools, all of which have the word 'High' in them, maybe in reverse of a standard phrase. How about this one: 'The school where they study phantoms, ghosts, and apparitions.' That would be 'Spirits High.' A caller who grew up in Australia has a question about wedding-invitation etiquette in the U.S. She wonders: Shouldn't an invitation refer to a daughter's 'marriage with' the groom rather than a 'marriage to' him? A man who works nights in a mortuary in Brookings, Oregon is curious about the origin of--what else?--'graveyard shift.' Quick, picture a berry: Is it blue? Red? Then where'd we get the English expression 'brown as a berry'? It's 'Slang for $500.' All-time 'Jeopardy!' Champion Ken Jennings tackles his next logical challenge, the 'A Way with Words' slang quiz. Ken puzzles over the meaning of 'brummagem' and 'pluck of a pig,' and tries to guess an usual meaning for the term daylight. More about Ken at his website, www.ken-jennings.com http://www.ken-jennings.com/index.html. In many neighborhoods, the night before Halloween is the night when pranksters run around wreaking all kinds of mischief--toilet-papering houses, spraying windows with shaving cream, ringing doorbells and then running away. A Connecticut woman remembers calling that night 'Goosey Night,' and is surprised when friends call it 'Mischief Night.' In fact, that prankfest goes by lots of other names, including 'Corn Night,' 'Picket Night,' and 'Devil Night.' In English, we say that someone who's egotistical has a 'big head.' But in French, according to a caller, the person is said to have 'big ankles.' Why ankles? Grant shares a 'quirklum.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-01,25390869 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:02:00 -0800 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25315824-Tilly-Tickets-minicast-20-Oct-2009 Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom? Over the years, we've answered lots of your questions about words and phrases that have to do with going to the bathroom. We've talked about euphemisms like I have to go see a man about a horse. Or that Victorian-era locution, I'm going to go pluck a rose. Or my favorite: I'm going to visit Miss White. We've also talked about the origin of biffy, a word for outdoor facilities. And we discussed how the word john may have become synonymous with that bathroom destination. But recently we received an email that has me puzzled. It's from Marge in Chula Vista, California. She writes: 'My brother and I have been reminiscing about our childhood, spent in an old house in New Hampshire, during World War II.  My mother always called toilet paper Tilly Tickets.' She continues: 'We don't have a clue where that expression came from.  Our memory was that when we were out of Tilly Tickets, we used the old scratchy patterns -- the kind used ... Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom? Over the years, we've answered lots of your questions about words and phrases that have to do with going to the bathroom. We've talked about euphemisms like I have to go see a man about a horse. Or that Victorian-era locution, I'm going to go pluck a rose. Or my favorite: I'm going to visit Miss White. We've also talked about the origin of biffy, a word for outdoor facilities. And we discussed how the word john may have become synonymous with that bathroom destination. But recently we received an email that has me puzzled. It's from Marge in Chula Vista, California. She writes: 'My brother and I have been reminiscing about our childhood, spent in an old house in New Hampshire, during World War II.  My mother always called toilet paper Tilly Tickets.' She continues: 'We don't have a clue where that expression came from.  Our memory was that when we were out of Tilly Tickets, we used the old scratchy patterns -- the kind used for sewing.' Eeeeuw. Well, her question made me squirm, and not just at the thought of using an old McCall's pattern. I have to admit I'm stumped. 'Tilly Tickets'? So I'm hoping you can help. Ever hear toilet paper called 'Tilly Tickets'? If so, did you ever hear a story to explain that name? Let us know. Our email address is words@waywordradio.org. One more thing: I want to share something I discovered while trying to find out about Tilly Tickets. You may recall that we've talked about the word lagniappe.  It's a term you're more likely to hear in the Gulf States, especially in southern Louisiana. It means 'a little something extra,' a little freebie that a vendor tosses in. A free keychain from your mechanic, or a calendar from a realtor--those are lagniappes. Well, it turns out that in Ireland, and parts of Newfoundland, they don't call it a lagniappe. They call it a tilly. I don't think this type of tilly has anything to do with Tilly Tickets. Just a little extra something I thought I'd toss in. Anyway, drop us a line if you know anything about Tilly Tickets. Hope you enjoyed this little tilly. If you like what you hear and learn, please consider a donation to our program. Thank you! -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom? Over the years, we've answered lots of your questions about words and phrases that have to do with going to the bathroom. We've talked about euphemisms like I have to go see a man about a horse. Or that Victorian-era locution, I'm going to go pluck a rose. Or my favorite: I'm going to visit Miss White. We've also talked about the origin of biffy, a word for outdoor facilities. And we discussed how the word john may have become synonymous with that bathroom destination. But recently we received an email that has me puzzled. It's from Marge in Chula Vista, California. She writes: 'My brother and I have been reminiscing about our childhood, spent in an old house in New Hampshire, during World War II.  My mother always called toilet paper Tilly Tickets.' She continues: 'We don't have a clue where that expression came from.  Our memory was that when we were out of Tilly Tickets, we used the old scratchy patterns -- the kind used for sewing.' Eeeeuw. Well, her question made me squirm, and not just at the thought of using an old McCall's pattern. I have to admit I'm stumped. 'Tilly Tickets'? So I'm hoping you can help. Ever hear toilet paper called 'Tilly Tickets'? If so, did you ever hear a story to explain that name? Let us know. Our email address is words@waywordradio.org. One more thing: I want to share something I discovered while trying to find out about Tilly Tickets. You may recall that we've talked about the word lagniappe.  It's a term you're more likely to hear in the Gulf States, especially in southern Louisiana. It means 'a little something extra,' a little freebie that a vendor tosses in. A free keychain from your mechanic, or a calendar from a realtor--those are lagniappes. Well, it turns out that in Ireland, and parts of Newfoundland, they don't call it a lagniappe. They call it a tilly. I don't think this type of tilly has anything to do with Tilly Tickets. Just a little extra something I thought I'd toss in. Anyway, drop us a line if you know anything about Tilly Tickets. Hope you enjoyed this little tilly. If you like what you hear and learn, please consider a donation to our program. Thank you! -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-19,25315824 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25310309-X-Y-and-Zed-19-Oct-2009 Some teachers are using a controversial tactic to get young students reading: They let their 'pupils choose which books to read' for class. Does it work? Also, should that line at the grocery store checkout read 15 items or 'less or fewer'? And is the expression 'these ones' grammatically incorrect? The owner of a yarn store in Juneau says a customer corrected her when she pointed out a special collection of buttons and said, 'You should check out these ones.' Is it incorrect to say 'these ones' instead of just 'these'? A Syracuse woman wonders how 'bread and butter pickles' got their name. What do you call that jarring sensation when you see a radio personality for the first time, and he looks nothing like what you expected? The hosts talked about it in a past episode http://www.waywordradio.org/bogarting-bangers/. Listeners responded with more words for this phenomenon. Quiz Guy John Chaneski was rummaging around the 'A Way with Words' Lost and Found Department, and returned with ... Some teachers are using a controversial tactic to get young students reading: They let their 'pupils choose which books to read' for class. Does it work? Also, should that line at the grocery store checkout read 15 items or 'less or fewer'? And is the expression 'these ones' grammatically incorrect? The owner of a yarn store in Juneau says a customer corrected her when she pointed out a special collection of buttons and said, 'You should check out these ones.' Is it incorrect to say 'these ones' instead of just 'these'? A Syracuse woman wonders how 'bread and butter pickles' got their name. What do you call that jarring sensation when you see a radio personality for the first time, and he looks nothing like what you expected? The hosts talked about it in a past episode http://www.waywordradio.org/bogarting-bangers/. Listeners responded with more words for this phenomenon. Quiz Guy John Chaneski was rummaging around the 'A Way with Words' Lost and Found Department, and returned with a 'quiz' based on lost items and their owners. The sign over the checkout lane says '15 Items or Less.' A listener is adamant that it should say '15 Items or Fewer.' A Texas listener recounts an ongoing debate in her family's kitchen over the exact 'definition of the word spatula.' Is it the kitchen tool used to spread icing and level measuring cups? Something you use to flip a pancake? That item with the plastic handle and the rubber blade for scraping a bowl? When she gets together with the in-laws to cook, the caller says, the request 'Hand me a spatula' leads to confusion. In Philadelphia, the expression the 'big mahoff,' means 'a bigshot,' as in 'Who do you think you are, the big mahoff?' But just what is a mahoff? A 'shivaree,' also spelled 'charivari,' is a raucous, good-natured hazing for newlyweds. A discussion here http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/ about that word prompted lots of listeners to write in with their own stories about shivarees. Martha shares some of them. In Britain, Canada, and some other English-speaking countries, the last letter of the alphabet is 'not zee, but zed.' A caller who grew up in Guyana wonders why. Sure, the present tense of sneak is easy, but what about the past? Is it 'sneaked or snuck'? A law student wonders about the origin of the word 'widget.' Is the word 'financial pronounced' with a long I in the first syllable? There's a story going around that the word 'posh' derives from 'Port Out, Starboard Home.' 'Don't fall for it.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Some teachers are using a controversial tactic to get young students reading: They let their 'pupils choose which books to read' for class. Does it work? Also, should that line at the grocery store checkout read 15 items or 'less or fewer'? And is the expression 'these ones' grammatically incorrect? The owner of a yarn store in Juneau says a customer corrected her when she pointed out a special collection of buttons and said, 'You should check out these ones.' Is it incorrect to say 'these ones' instead of just 'these'? A Syracuse woman wonders how 'bread and butter pickles' got their name. What do you call that jarring sensation when you see a radio personality for the first time, and he looks nothing like what you expected? The hosts talked about it in a past episode http://www.waywordradio.org/bogarting-bangers/. Listeners responded with more words for this phenomenon. Quiz Guy John Chaneski was rummaging around the 'A Way with Words' Lost and Found Department, and returned with a 'quiz' based on lost items and their owners. The sign over the checkout lane says '15 Items or Less.' A listener is adamant that it should say '15 Items or Fewer.' A Texas listener recounts an ongoing debate in her family's kitchen over the exact 'definition of the word spatula.' Is it the kitchen tool used to spread icing and level measuring cups? Something you use to flip a pancake? That item with the plastic handle and the rubber blade for scraping a bowl? When she gets together with the in-laws to cook, the caller says, the request 'Hand me a spatula' leads to confusion. In Philadelphia, the expression the 'big mahoff,' means 'a bigshot,' as in 'Who do you think you are, the big mahoff?' But just what is a mahoff? A 'shivaree,' also spelled 'charivari,' is a raucous, good-natured hazing for newlyweds. A discussion here http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/ about that word prompted lots of listeners to write in with their own stories about shivarees. Martha shares some of them. In Britain, Canada, and some other English-speaking countries, the last letter of the alphabet is 'not zee, but zed.' A caller who grew up in Guyana wonders why. Sure, the present tense of sneak is easy, but what about the past? Is it 'sneaked or snuck'? A law student wonders about the origin of the word 'widget.' Is the word 'financial pronounced' with a long I in the first syllable? There's a story going around that the word 'posh' derives from 'Port Out, Starboard Home.' 'Don't fall for it.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-18,25310309 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25287666-Roy-Blount-Jr-Slings-Southern-Slang-minicast-15-Oct-2009 Humorist Roy Blount Jr. stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz specifically about Southernisms. Blount, who is president of the Authors Guild, also joined Grant for a wide-ranging conversation about such topics as the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. Listen here. http://www.waywordradio.org/a-conversation-with-roy-blount-jr/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz specifically about Southernisms. Blount, who is president of the Authors Guild, also joined Grant for a wide-ranging conversation about such topics as the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. Listen here. http://www.waywordradio.org/a-conversation-with-roy-blount-jr/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz specifically about Southernisms. Blount, who is president of the Authors Guild, also joined Grant for a wide-ranging conversation about such topics as the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. Listen here. http://www.waywordradio.org/a-conversation-with-roy-blount-jr/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-14,25287666 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25276637-We-Cook-Off-Our-Potatoes-minicast-13-Oct-2009 If a restaurant menu states, 'We cook off our potatoes,' what in the heck does that mean? A truck driver who encountered such an announcement at a roadside cafe is still puzzling over what it means to 'cook off' a tuber. He phones in to hash it out. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. If a restaurant menu states, 'We cook off our potatoes,' what in the heck does that mean? A truck driver who encountered such an announcement at a roadside cafe is still puzzling over what it means to 'cook off' a tuber. He phones in to hash it out. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. If a restaurant menu states, 'We cook off our potatoes,' what in the heck does that mean? A truck driver who encountered such an announcement at a roadside cafe is still puzzling over what it means to 'cook off' a tuber. He phones in to hash it out. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-12,25276637 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25271122-Awkward-Turtle-12-Oct-2009 Do you say something happened on accident or by accident? Is text-messaging is destroying our kids' writing ability? Where do horseradish, zark, and ignoramus come from? Grant and Martha discuss a new collection of college slang compiled by UCLA linguistics professor Pamela Munro. Learn more about it and order a copy here. A Burlington, Vt. caller wants to know: Is horseradish so named because of this root's strong resemblance to part of a horse's anatomy? The word zarf means 'a metal cupholder,' but a Scrabble enthusiast says other players always challenge his use of that word. He wants to know its origin. What word in the English language is an anagram of itself? Hint: It's a trick question. Puzzle Dude John Chaneski has a quiz about the unofficial terms for familiar things that have less familiar official names. 'The Academy Awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,' for example, are unofficially called the Oscars. So what's the unofficial name for what'... Do you say something happened on accident or by accident? Is text-messaging is destroying our kids' writing ability? Where do horseradish, zark, and ignoramus come from? Grant and Martha discuss a new collection of college slang compiled by UCLA linguistics professor Pamela Munro. Learn more about it and order a copy here. A Burlington, Vt. caller wants to know: Is horseradish so named because of this root's strong resemblance to part of a horse's anatomy? The word zarf means 'a metal cupholder,' but a Scrabble enthusiast says other players always challenge his use of that word. He wants to know its origin. What word in the English language is an anagram of itself? Hint: It's a trick question. Puzzle Dude John Chaneski has a quiz about the unofficial terms for familiar things that have less familiar official names. 'The Academy Awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,' for example, are unofficially called the Oscars. So what's the unofficial name for what's officially known as Chomolungma? If you use the expression on accident rather than by accident, it probably says less about where you live and more about how old you are. Is there a word in the English language that means 'to read by candlelight'? A listener in Kittery Point, Maine, used to read the dictionary every night as a teenager and came across such a word. She's been racking her brain to remember it. An Orange County, California, listener describes how both his left-handed parents were forced as children to learn to write with their non-dominant hand. Their handwriting looked unusual, to say the least. Grant discusses myths about handedness and recommends the book Handwriting in America: A Cultural History by Tamara Thornton. By the way, if you're looking for the word that means 'written toward the left,' it's levographic. Here's a bit of campus slang accompanied by a hand gesture: awkward turtle. Grant explains what it means and how it's used. Need a visual? Text-messaging is destroying our kids' ability to write, right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. In a few parts of the country, such as eastern Wisconsin, the more common term for 'water fountain' is Text-messaging is destroying our kids' ability to write. A man who heard the term frequently in Rhode Island wonders: How did bubbler make it all the way over to Rhode Island, but seemingly skip the states in between? The story behind the word ignoramus is big fun. It involves a bumbling lawyer, a six-hour farce from the 17th century, and a Latin legal term. See? Big fun. If you need proof that language is powerful, here's some. Researchers at Cornell recently reported that kids are more likely to eat their veggies if they're told the food has enticing names like 'X-ray Vision Carrots' and 'Dinosaur Broccoli Trees.' Wonder how big a grant the researchers got to study what every parent already knows. Did you learn the vowels as 'a,' 'e,' 'i,' 'o' 'u,' and sometimes 'y' and 'w'? A caller who was taught that in second grade was left wondering: When and where does 'w' function as a vowel? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Do you say something happened on accident or by accident? Is text-messaging is destroying our kids' writing ability? Where do horseradish, zark, and ignoramus come from? Grant and Martha discuss a new collection of college slang compiled by UCLA linguistics professor Pamela Munro. Learn more about it and order a copy here. A Burlington, Vt. caller wants to know: Is horseradish so named because of this root's strong resemblance to part of a horse's anatomy? The word zarf means 'a metal cupholder,' but a Scrabble enthusiast says other players always challenge his use of that word. He wants to know its origin. What word in the English language is an anagram of itself? Hint: It's a trick question. Puzzle Dude John Chaneski has a quiz about the unofficial terms for familiar things that have less familiar official names. 'The Academy Awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,' for example, are unofficially called the Oscars. So what's the unofficial name for what's officially known as Chomolungma? If you use the expression on accident rather than by accident, it probably says less about where you live and more about how old you are. Is there a word in the English language that means 'to read by candlelight'? A listener in Kittery Point, Maine, used to read the dictionary every night as a teenager and came across such a word. She's been racking her brain to remember it. An Orange County, California, listener describes how both his left-handed parents were forced as children to learn to write with their non-dominant hand. Their handwriting looked unusual, to say the least. Grant discusses myths about handedness and recommends the book Handwriting in America: A Cultural History by Tamara Thornton. By the way, if you're looking for the word that means 'written toward the left,' it's levographic. Here's a bit of campus slang accompanied by a hand gesture: awkward turtle. Grant explains what it means and how it's used. Need a visual? Text-messaging is destroying our kids' ability to write, right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. In a few parts of the country, such as eastern Wisconsin, the more common term for 'water fountain' is Text-messaging is destroying our kids' ability to write. A man who heard the term frequently in Rhode Island wonders: How did bubbler make it all the way over to Rhode Island, but seemingly skip the states in between? The story behind the word ignoramus is big fun. It involves a bumbling lawyer, a six-hour farce from the 17th century, and a Latin legal term. See? Big fun. If you need proof that language is powerful, here's some. Researchers at Cornell recently reported that kids are more likely to eat their veggies if they're told the food has enticing names like 'X-ray Vision Carrots' and 'Dinosaur Broccoli Trees.' Wonder how big a grant the researchers got to study what every parent already knows. Did you learn the vowels as 'a,' 'e,' 'i,' 'o' 'u,' and sometimes 'y' and 'w'? A caller who was taught that in second grade was left wondering: When and where does 'w' function as a vowel? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-11,25271122 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25251425-What-s-Slang-Jang-minicast-8-Oct-2009 No, it's not the neurological effect of spending too much time researching odd new terms. Slang jang is a tongue-tickling sauce found in East Texas. For more about slang jang, including recipes, check out etymologist Barry Popik's site. http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/slang_jang/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. No, it's not the neurological effect of spending too much time researching odd new terms. Slang jang is a tongue-tickling sauce found in East Texas. For more about slang jang, including recipes, check out etymologist Barry Popik's site. http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/slang_jang/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. No, it's not the neurological effect of spending too much time researching odd new terms. Slang jang is a tongue-tickling sauce found in East Texas. For more about slang jang, including recipes, check out etymologist Barry Popik's site. http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/slang_jang/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-07,25251425 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25239782-Nuclearly-minicast-6-Oct-2009 Is it acceptable to make a brand-new adverb simply by adding an -ly to an adjective? A scientist wants to know, and specifically a term she uses, nuclearly. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Is it acceptable to make a brand-new adverb simply by adding an -ly to an adjective? A scientist wants to know, and specifically a term she uses, nuclearly. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Is it acceptable to make a brand-new adverb simply by adding an -ly to an adjective? A scientist wants to know, and specifically a term she uses, nuclearly. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-05,25239782 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25233483-Gyros-and-Sheath-Cakes-5-Oct-2009 What's the right way to pronounce 'gyros'? Have you ever heard of feeling 'poozley'? Called something great a 'blinger'? Use the expression 'one-off' to mean a 'one-time thing'? Grant and Martha recommend dictionaries for college students, both online references and the old-fashioned kind to keep at one's elbow. If you get hold of some bad sushi for lunch, you'll wind up feeling poozley. A caller whose in-laws use 'poozley' insists they must have made it up. A Texas family has a dispute with a prospective in-law who happens to be a chef. Is their favorite spicy chocolate cake properly known as a 'sheath cake' or a 'sheet cake'? One place where spelling really counts: on a job application. Martha shares some painfully funny proof. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska shares a 'puzzle in verse,' challenging the hosts to fill in the blanks with words that differ by just one letter. Like this: 'I never count ___ when Iâm going to ___; that method does not work for me. Right around fiveâs when I burst i... What's the right way to pronounce 'gyros'? Have you ever heard of feeling 'poozley'? Called something great a 'blinger'? Use the expression 'one-off' to mean a 'one-time thing'? Grant and Martha recommend dictionaries for college students, both online references and the old-fashioned kind to keep at one's elbow. If you get hold of some bad sushi for lunch, you'll wind up feeling poozley. A caller whose in-laws use 'poozley' insists they must have made it up. A Texas family has a dispute with a prospective in-law who happens to be a chef. Is their favorite spicy chocolate cake properly known as a 'sheath cake' or a 'sheet cake'? One place where spelling really counts: on a job application. Martha shares some painfully funny proof. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska shares a 'puzzle in verse,' challenging the hosts to fill in the blanks with words that differ by just one letter. Like this: 'I never count ___ when Iâm going to ___; that method does not work for me. Right around fiveâs when I burst into hives: Iâm allergic to wool, donât you see?' In medical terminology, the abbreviation 'GTTS' means 'drops' or 'drips.' But why? The hosts debate the right way to pronounce the name of that meaty Greek sandwiches known as 'gyros.' Is it JEE-roh? JYE-roh? YEE-roh? Something more Greek-sounding? Martha says her recent trip to Barcelona brought to mind a listener's question about whether the word 'gaudy' has anything to do with the name of the great Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi. A woman who grew up in Detroit remembers her mother saying, 'This one's going to be a real blinger!' whenever a big storm was coming. What exactly is a blinger? A 'one-off' is something that is done or made or occurs just once. A Washington State caller who's curious about the term learns that it derives from manufacturing lingo. The third edition of Bryan Garner's book, 'Modern American Usage' is now out. Grant explains why it's a wonderful reference to consult, even when you disagree with it. An ophthalmologist in Arcata, California, is puzzled by the way some of his older patients refer to 'a single lens.' Several of them call it a len, not a lens. This gives the hosts a chance to focus on what linguists call back-formations. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. What's the right way to pronounce 'gyros'? Have you ever heard of feeling 'poozley'? Called something great a 'blinger'? Use the expression 'one-off' to mean a 'one-time thing'? Grant and Martha recommend dictionaries for college students, both online references and the old-fashioned kind to keep at one's elbow. If you get hold of some bad sushi for lunch, you'll wind up feeling poozley. A caller whose in-laws use 'poozley' insists they must have made it up. A Texas family has a dispute with a prospective in-law who happens to be a chef. Is their favorite spicy chocolate cake properly known as a 'sheath cake' or a 'sheet cake'? One place where spelling really counts: on a job application. Martha shares some painfully funny proof. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska shares a 'puzzle in verse,' challenging the hosts to fill in the blanks with words that differ by just one letter. Like this: 'I never count ___ when Iâm going to ___; that method does not work for me. Right around fiveâs when I burst into hives: Iâm allergic to wool, donât you see?' In medical terminology, the abbreviation 'GTTS' means 'drops' or 'drips.' But why? The hosts debate the right way to pronounce the name of that meaty Greek sandwiches known as 'gyros.' Is it JEE-roh? JYE-roh? YEE-roh? Something more Greek-sounding? Martha says her recent trip to Barcelona brought to mind a listener's question about whether the word 'gaudy' has anything to do with the name of the great Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi. A woman who grew up in Detroit remembers her mother saying, 'This one's going to be a real blinger!' whenever a big storm was coming. What exactly is a blinger? A 'one-off' is something that is done or made or occurs just once. A Washington State caller who's curious about the term learns that it derives from manufacturing lingo. The third edition of Bryan Garner's book, 'Modern American Usage' is now out. Grant explains why it's a wonderful reference to consult, even when you disagree with it. An ophthalmologist in Arcata, California, is puzzled by the way some of his older patients refer to 'a single lens.' Several of them call it a len, not a lens. This gives the hosts a chance to focus on what linguists call back-formations. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-04,25233483 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25196724-West-Word-Ho-28-Sept-2009 It's a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He's used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already catching his ear. Also in this episode, what's the real meaning of decimate? And what does it mean when someone says don't leave your endgate up? A Wisconsin community is about to open its first dog park. But what to name it? 'Scentral Park'? 'Unleashed'? Martha and Grant try to help. Why do we call a run-down area skid row? A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: 'Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?' 'If you're writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e's and no other vowels?' Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle. Instead of saying 'Good-bye' or 'So long,' a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, Don't leave your endgate up. What's up with that? 'Are you shining me on?' m... It's a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He's used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already catching his ear. Also in this episode, what's the real meaning of decimate? And what does it mean when someone says don't leave your endgate up? A Wisconsin community is about to open its first dog park. But what to name it? 'Scentral Park'? 'Unleashed'? Martha and Grant try to help. Why do we call a run-down area skid row? A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: 'Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?' 'If you're writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e's and no other vowels?' Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle. Instead of saying 'Good-bye' or 'So long,' a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, Don't leave your endgate up. What's up with that? 'Are you shining me on?' means 'Are you trying to fool me?' But what does shining have to do with tricking someone? Grant talks about the surprising beauty to be found in, of all things, the names of shantytowns. Rock climbers use the term beta to refer to any information they receive about a route before climbing it. Is it related to beta as in 'beta-testing software'? The word decimate has a grisly etymology. It derives from a Latin military term meaning 'to execute every tenth man in an army unit'--the penalty for a failed mutiny. As a result, some sticklers insist that the English word decimate should be used only to indicate 'destroying a fraction of something' rather than 'destroy completely' or 'utterly wipe out.' Who's right? A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she'd say things like 'the car needs washed' or 'the kids need picked up.' She wonders if she's been saying it wrong all these years. There's a new Facebook group called People for a Library-Themed Ben & Jerry's Flavor. They say that libraries are awesome, B&J ice cream is tasty, so why not combine the two and convince Ben & Jerry's to produce a new flavor with a library theme? Candidates so far include 'Gooey Decimal System' and 'Rocky Read.' Do you have others? Tell us about it in the forum. A 14 yr-old teenager pronounces the word 'bagel' as BEH-gul, rather than BAY-gul. Her family thinks she's crazy. Who's right? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. It's a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He's used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already catching his ear. Also in this episode, what's the real meaning of decimate? And what does it mean when someone says don't leave your endgate up? A Wisconsin community is about to open its first dog park. But what to name it? 'Scentral Park'? 'Unleashed'? Martha and Grant try to help. Why do we call a run-down area skid row? A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: 'Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?' 'If you're writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e's and no other vowels?' Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle. Instead of saying 'Good-bye' or 'So long,' a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, Don't leave your endgate up. What's up with that? 'Are you shining me on?' means 'Are you trying to fool me?' But what does shining have to do with tricking someone? Grant talks about the surprising beauty to be found in, of all things, the names of shantytowns. Rock climbers use the term beta to refer to any information they receive about a route before climbing it. Is it related to beta as in 'beta-testing software'? The word decimate has a grisly etymology. It derives from a Latin military term meaning 'to execute every tenth man in an army unit'--the penalty for a failed mutiny. As a result, some sticklers insist that the English word decimate should be used only to indicate 'destroying a fraction of something' rather than 'destroy completely' or 'utterly wipe out.' Who's right? A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she'd say things like 'the car needs washed' or 'the kids need picked up.' She wonders if she's been saying it wrong all these years. There's a new Facebook group called People for a Library-Themed Ben & Jerry's Flavor. They say that libraries are awesome, B&J ice cream is tasty, so why not combine the two and convince Ben & Jerry's to produce a new flavor with a library theme? Candidates so far include 'Gooey Decimal System' and 'Rocky Read.' Do you have others? Tell us about it in the forum. A 14 yr-old teenager pronounces the word 'bagel' as BEH-gul, rather than BAY-gul. Her family thinks she's crazy. Who's right? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-27,25196724 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25157434-English-Down-Under-21-Sept-2009 [This episode originally aired October 11, 2008.] This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andâkangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a busboy. Also, what's the plural of moose? Meese? Mooses? Great news for language fans: The Australian National Dictionary is now available online for free. It's full of fascinating words from Down Under. Contrary to what you might think, for example, kangaroosters are pouchless and feather-free, and a pumpkin squatter isn't a trendy thigh-reducing exercise. Ever been accused of faunching around? A San Diego listener says her family used this expression to describe the act of squirming fussily or impatiently, the kind of thing that happens when a toddler gets a haircut. She asks if the word is unique to her family. Say there's one moose, and then another comes along. Now there are twoâwhat? Mees... [This episode originally aired October 11, 2008.] This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andâkangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a busboy. Also, what's the plural of moose? Meese? Mooses? Great news for language fans: The Australian National Dictionary is now available online for free. It's full of fascinating words from Down Under. Contrary to what you might think, for example, kangaroosters are pouchless and feather-free, and a pumpkin squatter isn't a trendy thigh-reducing exercise. Ever been accused of faunching around? A San Diego listener says her family used this expression to describe the act of squirming fussily or impatiently, the kind of thing that happens when a toddler gets a haircut. She asks if the word is unique to her family. Say there's one moose, and then another comes along. Now there are twoâwhat? Meese? Mooses? Moose? A Denver man wants to know the correct plural term for moose. The hosts offer news you can use about moose. If Grandma thinks you're coming down with the epizootic, she'll probably want to put you to bed and bring you a bowl of soup. But what's an epizootic, anyway? And does being diagnosed with it make you feel better or worse? Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle called 'Blank the Blank' or 'Verb the Noun,' about three-word phrases with a 'the' in the middle. It's harder than you might think, so play along and see if you can 'blank' the 'blank.' How about the phrase saddle my nag? No, this phrase isn't some obscure bit of jargon from world of finance. It's an expression familiar to Aussie schoolchildren. Martha explains what it means. If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce 'ask' as 'axe'? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer. If a tippler has one too many, he's said to be three sheets to the wind. But why three? And why, of all things, sheets? A Wisconsin listener remembers a boss who used to use an odd expression whenever he wanted to change the subject of a discussion. The boss would say, 'Well, wet birds don't fly at night,' then switch to another subject. Grant explains what the term likely means. Hint: Not much! Aerial ping-pong: Is it a new Olympic sport? A less intense version of tonsil hockey? Martha reveals the meaning of this Australian English term. In this week's installment of 'Slang This!' a contestant from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the term vigorish. And no, it's not a Viagra-laced anise liqueur. He also guesses the meaning of the phrase how we roll. Everyone knows the term stereotype, but did you ever stop to wonder what the word has to do with stereos? Not much, really. But it does derive from the world of printing. Why do we call the fellow clearing the dishes and silverware a busboy? A Chicago listener isn't satisfied with the answer, 'Because he's bussing the table.' Grant reveals the terms likely Latin roots. You're going to meet yourself coming back. A New York City woman who's always used this expression is surprised when a friend is puzzled by it. Is it really that unusual? Grant assures her that it's been around for quite a while. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode originally aired October 11, 2008.] This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andâkangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a busboy. Also, what's the plural of moose? Meese? Mooses? Great news for language fans: The Australian National Dictionary is now available online for free. It's full of fascinating words from Down Under. Contrary to what you might think, for example, kangaroosters are pouchless and feather-free, and a pumpkin squatter isn't a trendy thigh-reducing exercise. Ever been accused of faunching around? A San Diego listener says her family used this expression to describe the act of squirming fussily or impatiently, the kind of thing that happens when a toddler gets a haircut. She asks if the word is unique to her family. Say there's one moose, and then another comes along. Now there are twoâwhat? Meese? Mooses? Moose? A Denver man wants to know the correct plural term for moose. The hosts offer news you can use about moose. If Grandma thinks you're coming down with the epizootic, she'll probably want to put you to bed and bring you a bowl of soup. But what's an epizootic, anyway? And does being diagnosed with it make you feel better or worse? Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle called 'Blank the Blank' or 'Verb the Noun,' about three-word phrases with a 'the' in the middle. It's harder than you might think, so play along and see if you can 'blank' the 'blank.' How about the phrase saddle my nag? No, this phrase isn't some obscure bit of jargon from world of finance. It's an expression familiar to Aussie schoolchildren. Martha explains what it means. If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce 'ask' as 'axe'? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer. If a tippler has one too many, he's said to be three sheets to the wind. But why three? And why, of all things, sheets? A Wisconsin listener remembers a boss who used to use an odd expression whenever he wanted to change the subject of a discussion. The boss would say, 'Well, wet birds don't fly at night,' then switch to another subject. Grant explains what the term likely means. Hint: Not much! Aerial ping-pong: Is it a new Olympic sport? A less intense version of tonsil hockey? Martha reveals the meaning of this Australian English term. In this week's installment of 'Slang This!' a contestant from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the term vigorish. And no, it's not a Viagra-laced anise liqueur. He also guesses the meaning of the phrase how we roll. Everyone knows the term stereotype, but did you ever stop to wonder what the word has to do with stereos? Not much, really. But it does derive from the world of printing. Why do we call the fellow clearing the dishes and silverware a busboy? A Chicago listener isn't satisfied with the answer, 'Because he's bussing the table.' Grant reveals the terms likely Latin roots. You're going to meet yourself coming back. A New York City woman who's always used this expression is surprised when a friend is puzzled by it. Is it really that unusual? Grant assures her that it's been around for quite a while. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-20,25157434 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25137423-Oh-ah-Oh-ah-That-s-How-We-Roll-minicast-17-Sept-2009 Does your family have a word for the cardboard tube left over from a roll of toilet paper? A caller says his family refers to them Oh-ah, Oh-ahs. Turns out many families have their own terms for them, including drit-drit, dawda dawda, hoo-hoo, to-do, taw-taw, and der der. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Does your family have a word for the cardboard tube left over from a roll of toilet paper? A caller says his family refers to them Oh-ah, Oh-ahs. Turns out many families have their own terms for them, including drit-drit, dawda dawda, hoo-hoo, to-do, taw-taw, and der der. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Does your family have a word for the cardboard tube left over from a roll of toilet paper? A caller says his family refers to them Oh-ah, Oh-ahs. Turns out many families have their own terms for them, including drit-drit, dawda dawda, hoo-hoo, to-do, taw-taw, and der der. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-16,25137423 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25126737-The-Prehistoric-Mother-Tongue-minicast-15-Sept-2009 Many of the world's languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Many of the world's languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Many of the world's languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-14,25126737 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25121246-Never-Bolt-Your-Door-with-A-Boiled-Carrot-14-Sept-2009 [This episode first aired October 4, 2008.] Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: 'Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.' And this truism from Zanzibar: 'When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers.' Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography--a collection of proverbs--from around the world. A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about 'cur-wife,' but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase 'that poor woman.' The hosts try to help her come up with other possibilities. 'It's raining, it's pouring.' But what exactly is the 'it' that's doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the 'weather it.' Hint: It depends on what the meaning of 'it' is. Your eyetooth is located directly benea... [This episode first aired October 4, 2008.] Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: 'Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.' And this truism from Zanzibar: 'When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers.' Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography--a collection of proverbs--from around the world. A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about 'cur-wife,' but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase 'that poor woman.' The hosts try to help her come up with other possibilities. 'It's raining, it's pouring.' But what exactly is the 'it' that's doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the 'weather it.' Hint: It depends on what the meaning of 'it' is. Your eyetooth is located directly beneath your eye. But is that why they're called eyeteeth? A Boston caller would give her eyeteeth to know. Okay, not really, but she did want an answer to this question. Quiz Guy John Chaneski invites Grant and Martha to busta rhyme with a word puzzle called Rhyme Groups. You've seen people indicate emphasis by putting a period after each of several words, and capitalizing the first letter of each word. A Michigan listener wonders how this stylistic trick arose. Her question was prompted by this description of French model-turned-presidential-spouse Carla Bruni: 'She's got a cashmere voice and a killer body. Plays decent guitar and writes her own lyrics. Can hold her own with queens and statesmen. She. Must. Be. Stopped.' Jealous much? Do you want to get down? Ask that in parts of Louisiana, and people know you're not inquiring whether they care to dance, you're asking if they want to get out of a car. A former Louisianan who grew up using the expression that way wonders if it's French-inspired. The hosts proceed to use the phrase 'get down' so much they end up with a dreadful K.C. and the Sunshine Band earworm. Which is correct for describing a close family resemblance: spittin' image or spit and image? Grant and Martha discuss the possible origins of these expressions, including a recent hypothesis that's sure to surprise. In this week's episode of Slang This!, Dave Dickerson from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the terms cowboy up and money bomb. If you've used the word sickly too many times in a paragraph and need a synonym, there's always dauncy, also spelled donsie and dauncy. Grant explains the origin of this queasy-sounding word. A Navy man stationed in Hawaii phones to settle a dispute over the difference between acronyms and initialisms. Here's hoping he didn't go AWOL to make the call. Is English is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket? A Wisconsin grandmother thinks so, particularly because of all the ums and you knows she hears in everyday speech. The hosts discuss these so-called disfluencies, including how to avoid them and how to keep other people's disfluencies from grating on your nerves. We leave you with a couple other proverbs translated into English. They're from David Crystal's paremiography, As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbs are like butterflies; some are caught and some fly away. (Germany) Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself. (China) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired October 4, 2008.] Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: 'Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.' And this truism from Zanzibar: 'When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers.' Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography--a collection of proverbs--from around the world. A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about 'cur-wife,' but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase 'that poor woman.' The hosts try to help her come up with other possibilities. 'It's raining, it's pouring.' But what exactly is the 'it' that's doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the 'weather it.' Hint: It depends on what the meaning of 'it' is. Your eyetooth is located directly beneath your eye. But is that why they're called eyeteeth? A Boston caller would give her eyeteeth to know. Okay, not really, but she did want an answer to this question. Quiz Guy John Chaneski invites Grant and Martha to busta rhyme with a word puzzle called Rhyme Groups. You've seen people indicate emphasis by putting a period after each of several words, and capitalizing the first letter of each word. A Michigan listener wonders how this stylistic trick arose. Her question was prompted by this description of French model-turned-presidential-spouse Carla Bruni: 'She's got a cashmere voice and a killer body. Plays decent guitar and writes her own lyrics. Can hold her own with queens and statesmen. She. Must. Be. Stopped.' Jealous much? Do you want to get down? Ask that in parts of Louisiana, and people know you're not inquiring whether they care to dance, you're asking if they want to get out of a car. A former Louisianan who grew up using the expression that way wonders if it's French-inspired. The hosts proceed to use the phrase 'get down' so much they end up with a dreadful K.C. and the Sunshine Band earworm. Which is correct for describing a close family resemblance: spittin' image or spit and image? Grant and Martha discuss the possible origins of these expressions, including a recent hypothesis that's sure to surprise. In this week's episode of Slang This!, Dave Dickerson from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the terms cowboy up and money bomb. If you've used the word sickly too many times in a paragraph and need a synonym, there's always dauncy, also spelled donsie and dauncy. Grant explains the origin of this queasy-sounding word. A Navy man stationed in Hawaii phones to settle a dispute over the difference between acronyms and initialisms. Here's hoping he didn't go AWOL to make the call. Is English is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket? A Wisconsin grandmother thinks so, particularly because of all the ums and you knows she hears in everyday speech. The hosts discuss these so-called disfluencies, including how to avoid them and how to keep other people's disfluencies from grating on your nerves. We leave you with a couple other proverbs translated into English. They're from David Crystal's paremiography, As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbs are like butterflies; some are caught and some fly away. (Germany) Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself. (China) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-13,25121246 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25083520-The-Txting-Db8-7-Sept-2009 [This episode first aired Sept. 27, 2009.] OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into a nation of illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, 'Txting: The Gr8 Db8,' author David Crystal offers a different perspective. The book's surprising message is one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it! The French phrase 'au jus' means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with 'au jus sauce.' A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer fresh from the 'Waiter, There's a Redundancy in My Soup!' Department. In medical parlance, your big toe is your 'hallux.' But what about the other four? Do they have anatomical names as well? A San Diego man who hurt the toe next to his big toe is tired ... [This episode first aired Sept. 27, 2009.] OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into a nation of illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, 'Txting: The Gr8 Db8,' author David Crystal offers a different perspective. The book's surprising message is one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it! The French phrase 'au jus' means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with 'au jus sauce.' A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer fresh from the 'Waiter, There's a Redundancy in My Soup!' Department. In medical parlance, your big toe is your 'hallux.' But what about the other four? Do they have anatomical names as well? A San Diego man who hurt the toe next to his big toe is tired of referring to his injured digit as 'the toe next to my big toe,' and wants the proper medical term. How does 'porcellus domi' grab you? Prehensily? Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a letter-shaving game called 'Curtailments.' In this game, Grant and Martha leave everything on the floor. A caller from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was puzzled when she moved there and locals asked, 'What's your name from home?' meaning, 'What's your maiden name?' The community has a strong Polish heritage, and she wonders if there's a connection. It's a good hunch, and Martha explains why. Say you have a particularly rambunctious child. Okay, a little hellion. Is it proper to describe the little devil as a 'holy terror'? Or might it be more correct and more logical to call him an 'unholy terror'? A Los Angeles caller thinks it's the latter. If you've flown from Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport recently, you may have noticed an odd but official-looking sign that reads: 'RECOMBOBULATION AREA.' A caller from Madison was discombobulated to see it, then started wondering about the roots of such words. See if it does the same for you here: http://tinyurl.com/4mc8dm The real problem with texting isn't how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you're trying to have a conversation than watching your companion's eyes flitting to his phone when he sees that a text message just arrived? The hosts discuss the need for a new text-messaging etiquette. Let's say that you're getting 'diesel therapy' at 'o-dark-thirty.' What are you getting and when are you getting it? A New Jersey contestant from the National Puzzlers' League learns the meaning of these terms in this week's slang quiz. What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like 'motel' from 'motor' and 'hotel'? A listener says his term for them is 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cup words,' after the old commercial: 'You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter in my chocolate!' But he wonders if there's another, more established term. The hosts introduce him to the word 'portmanteau.' When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. That's all for this week. L8r! -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired Sept. 27, 2009.] OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into a nation of illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, 'Txting: The Gr8 Db8,' author David Crystal offers a different perspective. The book's surprising message is one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it! The French phrase 'au jus' means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with 'au jus sauce.' A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer fresh from the 'Waiter, There's a Redundancy in My Soup!' Department. In medical parlance, your big toe is your 'hallux.' But what about the other four? Do they have anatomical names as well? A San Diego man who hurt the toe next to his big toe is tired of referring to his injured digit as 'the toe next to my big toe,' and wants the proper medical term. How does 'porcellus domi' grab you? Prehensily? Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a letter-shaving game called 'Curtailments.' In this game, Grant and Martha leave everything on the floor. A caller from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was puzzled when she moved there and locals asked, 'What's your name from home?' meaning, 'What's your maiden name?' The community has a strong Polish heritage, and she wonders if there's a connection. It's a good hunch, and Martha explains why. Say you have a particularly rambunctious child. Okay, a little hellion. Is it proper to describe the little devil as a 'holy terror'? Or might it be more correct and more logical to call him an 'unholy terror'? A Los Angeles caller thinks it's the latter. If you've flown from Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport recently, you may have noticed an odd but official-looking sign that reads: 'RECOMBOBULATION AREA.' A caller from Madison was discombobulated to see it, then started wondering about the roots of such words. See if it does the same for you here: http://tinyurl.com/4mc8dm The real problem with texting isn't how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you're trying to have a conversation than watching your companion's eyes flitting to his phone when he sees that a text message just arrived? The hosts discuss the need for a new text-messaging etiquette. Let's say that you're getting 'diesel therapy' at 'o-dark-thirty.' What are you getting and when are you getting it? A New Jersey contestant from the National Puzzlers' League learns the meaning of these terms in this week's slang quiz. What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like 'motel' from 'motor' and 'hotel'? A listener says his term for them is 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cup words,' after the old commercial: 'You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter in my chocolate!' But he wonders if there's another, more established term. The hosts introduce him to the word 'portmanteau.' When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. That's all for this week. L8r! -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-06,25083520 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25047709-Bogarting-Bangers-31-Aug-2009 [This episode first aired June 6, 2009.] Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have ... [This episode first aired June 6, 2009.] Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You know that odd feeling when you've listened to a radio personality for years, but when you finally meet them, they look nothing like you'd imagined? Is there a word for that weird disconnect? 'Radiofreude,' maybe? Martha shares what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard had to say about exclamation marks. Short version: Neither is a fan. Quiz Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska lead a couple of rounds of 'Chain Reaction,' a word game that's great for parties and long car rides. Two players try to make a third one guess the word that the other two are thinking of. The trick is that they have to give alternating one-word clues to build a sentence. Hilarity ensues. Hillary sues. Why do some people refer to a couch or a sofa as a 'davenport'? How should you pronounce the word 'gala' <http://www.bartleby.com/61/9/G0010900.html>? Grant reports some etymological news: A recent article in the journal American Speech suggests a new source for the term that means 'drunk,' 'blotto.' If you're in New Zealand and are told to 'rattle your dags,' you'd better get a move on. Literally, though, the expression has to do with sheep butts. Martha reviews the new book, 'Dreaming in Hindi,' by Katherine Russell Rich <http://www.katherinerussellrich.com/>, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to interview experts about the mechanics of second-language acquisition and how it affects the brain. Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Rich <http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6658373.html?industryid=47148>. Grant discusses an article about what happens to the mother tongue voice <http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/12213619/Do-anglophones-paddle-in-the-s.html?h=B> when first-language speakers of indigenous languages in India learn English and then spend years focused on speaking and writing in their adopted tongue. How did the word 'pigeonhole' come to mean 'classify' or 'categorize'? An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a 'golden parachute.' Where'd that term come from? A caller is adamant honorifics should be used to address the President of the United States, as in 'President Obama,' never 'Mr. Obama.' He thinks it's disrespectful and divisive when news organizations use 'Mr.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired June 6, 2009.] Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You know that odd feeling when you've listened to a radio personality for years, but when you finally meet them, they look nothing like you'd imagined? Is there a word for that weird disconnect? 'Radiofreude,' maybe? Martha shares what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard had to say about exclamation marks. Short version: Neither is a fan. Quiz Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska lead a couple of rounds of 'Chain Reaction,' a word game that's great for parties and long car rides. Two players try to make a third one guess the word that the other two are thinking of. The trick is that they have to give alternating one-word clues to build a sentence. Hilarity ensues. Hillary sues. Why do some people refer to a couch or a sofa as a 'davenport'? How should you pronounce the word 'gala' <http://www.bartleby.com/61/9/G0010900.html>? Grant reports some etymological news: A recent article in the journal American Speech suggests a new source for the term that means 'drunk,' 'blotto.' If you're in New Zealand and are told to 'rattle your dags,' you'd better get a move on. Literally, though, the expression has to do with sheep butts. Martha reviews the new book, 'Dreaming in Hindi,' by Katherine Russell Rich <http://www.katherinerussellrich.com/>, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to interview experts about the mechanics of second-language acquisition and how it affects the brain. Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Rich <http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6658373.html?industryid=47148>. Grant discusses an article about what happens to the mother tongue voice <http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/12213619/Do-anglophones-paddle-in-the-s.html?h=B> when first-language speakers of indigenous languages in India learn English and then spend years focused on speaking and writing in their adopted tongue. How did the word 'pigeonhole' come to mean 'classify' or 'categorize'? An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a 'golden parachute.' Where'd that term come from? A caller is adamant honorifics should be used to address the President of the United States, as in 'President Obama,' never 'Mr. Obama.' He thinks it's disrespectful and divisive when news organizations use 'Mr.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-30,25047709 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25010500-Poets-Laureate-and-Poetry-Brothels-24-Aug-2009 [This episode first aird May 23, 2009.] For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoo... [This episode first aird May 23, 2009.] For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about a ship in a storm-tossed sea. Here's an early edition <http://books.google.com/books?id=MIAUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=wreck+of+the+hesperus&ei=-QYSStXYNoHgkwT8uMHcCQ#PPP1,M1> of the poem, along with some splendid old-fashioned illustrations. If a Scotsman says he 'takes a scunner' to something, he means it gives him a feeling of loathing or revulsion. Grant and Martha discuss this term's possible origins. For more about the word scunner, check out the 'Dictionary of the Scots Language' <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?headerframe=yes&query=scunner&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=all>. Grant reads another poem by Carol Ann Duffy, 'Valentine' <http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Carol_Ann_Duffy/9274>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called 'States of MIND,' in which the answers are words formed by combining the postal abbreviations of states. Try this clue: 'A word that refers to your knowledge or intellectual ability. The seat of your faculty of reason.' The answer? Michigan and North Dakota, the abbreviations for which spell out the word MIND. A recent PBS special about 'Appalachia' has a caller wondering how to pronounce that region's name. Why do we say that someone is inexperienced is 'wet behind the ears'? The hosts tackle that question, and discuss whether Barack Obama misspoke during the 2008 presidential campaign when he used a similar expression, 'green behind the ears.' 'To go on the lam' means 'to flee' or 'attempt to elude capture.' But why 'lam'? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/>, Martha explained the origin of the expression 'to boot,' meaning 'in addition' or 'besides.' That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of 'booting a computer.' Grant has the answer. Martha shares listeners' responses to an earlier minicast <http://www.waywordradio.org/macaroni-and-gravy/> about the Italian-American expression 'macaroni and gravy.' Many people are irritated by using the word 'troops to refer to a small number of soldiers,' as in 'Two troops were wounded.' Is it ever correct to use the word troop to mean an individual person? The hosts explain that in the military, it's actually quite common to use the word troop to refer to just one person. Does the expression 'call a spade a spade' have racist roots? Martha explains that it derives from an ancient Greek phrase, but cautions against its use nevertheless. When you hear the 'F-word' in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the 'F-word' of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? 'I 'literally' exploded with rage!' Using the word 'literally' in this way grates on many a stickler's ear. Moreover, if it's okay to 'use the word 'literally' figuratively, then what do you say when you actually do mean 'literally'? The hosts discuss a related article in 'Slate' called 'The Word We Love to Hate' <http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/>. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aird May 23, 2009.] For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about a ship in a storm-tossed sea. Here's an early edition <http://books.google.com/books?id=MIAUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=wreck+of+the+hesperus&ei=-QYSStXYNoHgkwT8uMHcCQ#PPP1,M1> of the poem, along with some splendid old-fashioned illustrations. If a Scotsman says he 'takes a scunner' to something, he means it gives him a feeling of loathing or revulsion. Grant and Martha discuss this term's possible origins. For more about the word scunner, check out the 'Dictionary of the Scots Language' <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?headerframe=yes&query=scunner&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=all>. Grant reads another poem by Carol Ann Duffy, 'Valentine' <http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Carol_Ann_Duffy/9274>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called 'States of MIND,' in which the answers are words formed by combining the postal abbreviations of states. Try this clue: 'A word that refers to your knowledge or intellectual ability. The seat of your faculty of reason.' The answer? Michigan and North Dakota, the abbreviations for which spell out the word MIND. A recent PBS special about 'Appalachia' has a caller wondering how to pronounce that region's name. Why do we say that someone is inexperienced is 'wet behind the ears'? The hosts tackle that question, and discuss whether Barack Obama misspoke during the 2008 presidential campaign when he used a similar expression, 'green behind the ears.' 'To go on the lam' means 'to flee' or 'attempt to elude capture.' But why 'lam'? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/>, Martha explained the origin of the expression 'to boot,' meaning 'in addition' or 'besides.' That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of 'booting a computer.' Grant has the answer. Martha shares listeners' responses to an earlier minicast <http://www.waywordradio.org/macaroni-and-gravy/> about the Italian-American expression 'macaroni and gravy.' Many people are irritated by using the word 'troops to refer to a small number of soldiers,' as in 'Two troops were wounded.' Is it ever correct to use the word troop to mean an individual person? The hosts explain that in the military, it's actually quite common to use the word troop to refer to just one person. Does the expression 'call a spade a spade' have racist roots? Martha explains that it derives from an ancient Greek phrase, but cautions against its use nevertheless. When you hear the 'F-word' in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the 'F-word' of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? 'I 'literally' exploded with rage!' Using the word 'literally' in this way grates on many a stickler's ear. Moreover, if it's okay to 'use the word 'literally' figuratively, then what do you say when you actually do mean 'literally'? The hosts discuss a related article in 'Slate' called 'The Word We Love to Hate' <http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/>. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-23,25010500 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24973530-Words-With-K-in-Them-Are-Funny-17-Aug-2009 [This episode first aired May 16, 2009.] Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phr... [This episode first aired May 16, 2009.] Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug' <http://www.waywordradio.org/like-a-duck-on-a-june-bug/>, which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who's watched plenty of ducks interact with junebugs and offers a vivid description of what that looks like. In this week's puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski is looking for phrases in which the only vowel is the letter A. Try this clue: 'This person said, 'I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant, sometimes it is fearful, but nevertheless, it is inevitable.' Hint: The speaker's first name is the same as one of this show's hosts. What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them 'bascarts.' Check out this dialect map <http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_75.html> featuring these and other names for this device. One definition of a 'shivaree' is 'a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night hideous.' Also spelled 'charivari,' this old-fashioned form of hazing newlyweds often involved interrupting them in the middle of the night with a raucous party. A former Hoosier calls to discuss boyhood memories of a shivaree and wonders about the source of this term. How do you 'pronounce February'? Is it FEB-roo-air-ee or FEB-yew-air-ee? A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it 'a scissors' or 'a pair of scissors'? Grant recommends a couple of favorite children's books by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben: 'Baboon' <http://www.amazon.com/Baboon-Kate-Banks/dp/0374404739/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106164&sr=1-9> and 'The Night Worker' <http://www.amazon.com/Night-Worker-Kate-Banks/dp/0374400008/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106025&sr=1-12>. Martha explains the story behind the expression 'richer than Bim Gump.' Find out more about the long-running comic strip that inspired it here <http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=264&ai=43006&ssd=4/5/2003&arch=y>. The names Australia and Austria are awfully similar. Is it a coincidence? The H1N1 virus has a lot of people wondering about pandemics vs. epidemics. Grant explains the difference. Martha explains the origin of the word 'coin,' as in 'to coin a phrase.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired May 16, 2009.] Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug' <http://www.waywordradio.org/like-a-duck-on-a-june-bug/>, which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who's watched plenty of ducks interact with junebugs and offers a vivid description of what that looks like. In this week's puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski is looking for phrases in which the only vowel is the letter A. Try this clue: 'This person said, 'I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant, sometimes it is fearful, but nevertheless, it is inevitable.' Hint: The speaker's first name is the same as one of this show's hosts. What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them 'bascarts.' Check out this dialect map <http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_75.html> featuring these and other names for this device. One definition of a 'shivaree' is 'a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night hideous.' Also spelled 'charivari,' this old-fashioned form of hazing newlyweds often involved interrupting them in the middle of the night with a raucous party. A former Hoosier calls to discuss boyhood memories of a shivaree and wonders about the source of this term. How do you 'pronounce February'? Is it FEB-roo-air-ee or FEB-yew-air-ee? A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it 'a scissors' or 'a pair of scissors'? Grant recommends a couple of favorite children's books by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben: 'Baboon' <http://www.amazon.com/Baboon-Kate-Banks/dp/0374404739/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106164&sr=1-9> and 'The Night Worker' <http://www.amazon.com/Night-Worker-Kate-Banks/dp/0374400008/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106025&sr=1-12>. Martha explains the story behind the expression 'richer than Bim Gump.' Find out more about the long-running comic strip that inspired it here <http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=264&ai=43006&ssd=4/5/2003&arch=y>. The names Australia and Austria are awfully similar. Is it a coincidence? The H1N1 virus has a lot of people wondering about pandemics vs. epidemics. Grant explains the difference. Martha explains the origin of the word 'coin,' as in 'to coin a phrase.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-16,24973530 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24952097-Bothered-by-People-Talking-in-the-Third-Person-minicast-13-Aug-2009 Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There's a word for the practice of referring to oneself in the third person: illeism. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There's a word for the practice of referring to oneself in the third person: illeism. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There's a word for the practice of referring to oneself in the third person: illeism. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-12,24952097 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24935288-Going-for-that-Anti-Marketing-Dollar-10-Aug-2009 [This episode first aired May 2, 2009.] In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Ne... [This episode first aired May 2, 2009.] In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage. It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. <http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.) If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression? Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'? Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she's known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for 'upset' and its likely linguistic roots. Hear the song about 'agita' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcvDI4mZfU> from the movie 'Broadway Danny Rose'. When somebody cuts you off in traffic do you 'feel all stabby'? Grant discusses this slang term. You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby's tummy so he'll giggle? Many people call that a 'raspberry,' but some people call that a 'zerbert.' A caller's husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the term on his popular sitcom. She begs to differ. The expression 'over yonder' isn't just the stuff of Carole King songs and old-timey hymns. To many Southerners, it's everyday English. The hosts discuss this poetic-sounding turn of phrase. For tech-savvy types, saying 'ping me,' meaning 'contact me,' is as natural as grabbing a snack while waiting for your computer to boot up. The hosts disagree about whether the verb to ping has already moved into common parlance in the larger world. It's a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it 'who or whom'? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague's email signature, but he's not sure it's 100% grammatical. The sentence: 'There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot help, cannot comfort, and none we cannot harm.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired May 2, 2009.] In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage. It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. <http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.) If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression? Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'? Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she's known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for 'upset' and its likely linguistic roots. Hear the song about 'agita' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcvDI4mZfU> from the movie 'Broadway Danny Rose'. When somebody cuts you off in traffic do you 'feel all stabby'? Grant discusses this slang term. You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby's tummy so he'll giggle? Many people call that a 'raspberry,' but some people call that a 'zerbert.' A caller's husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the term on his popular sitcom. She begs to differ. The expression 'over yonder' isn't just the stuff of Carole King songs and old-timey hymns. To many Southerners, it's everyday English. The hosts discuss this poetic-sounding turn of phrase. For tech-savvy types, saying 'ping me,' meaning 'contact me,' is as natural as grabbing a snack while waiting for your computer to boot up. The hosts disagree about whether the verb to ping has already moved into common parlance in the larger world. It's a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it 'who or whom'? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague's email signature, but he's not sure it's 100% grammatical. The sentence: 'There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot help, cannot comfort, and none we cannot harm.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-09,24935288 Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24922245-How-Do-You-Pronounce-Etiquette-Minicast-7-Aug-2009 If a colleague repeatedly mispronounces a word, what's the best way to handle it? Should you correct him? Ignore it? Is it possible to discuss the proper way to say something without being rude or condescending? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. If a colleague repeatedly mispronounces a word, what's the best way to handle it? Should you correct him? Ignore it? Is it possible to discuss the proper way to say something without being rude or condescending? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. If a colleague repeatedly mispronounces a word, what's the best way to handle it? Should you correct him? Ignore it? Is it possible to discuss the proper way to say something without being rude or condescending? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-06,24922245 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24902006-Like-a-Duck-on-a-June-Bug-3-Aug-2009 [This episode first aired Apr. 11, 2009.] Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors ... [This episode first aired Apr. 11, 2009.] Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced years later. Case in point: 'Rivoli's hummingbird' is now known as the 'magnificent hummingbird.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska takes equal portions of words and numbers, mixes well, and whips up a quiz called 'Initiarithmetic.' The idea is to guess the words based on the initial letters of well-known phrases involving numbers. For example: 'There are 12 M in the Y.' Wait, that was too easy. How about this one: 'There are 2 K of P in the W. T W D the W into T K of P, and T W D.' Is there a way to get youngsters to stop overusing the word 'like'? The mother of a middle-schooler who's picked up the habit wonders where it came from and how she can stop it. Grant and Martha have suggestions, and Martha mentions this enlightening essay about teenagers and 'like' by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg <http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/like.html> 'Chicken bog' isn't a bird name, nor is it a place. It's a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller wonders about the origin of these food terms. By the way, if you like chicken bog, you'll love the annual bog-off in Loris, South Carolina. <http://www.cityofloris.com/production/index.cfm?nextpage=ChickenBog>Some folks use the old-fashioned exclamation 'Good night, nurse!' as a handy substitute for a cussword. But where'd it come from? Grant explains how this phrase became popular in the early 20th century. What's a 'Luddite'? Martha explains that this term for 'someone resistant to technological change' has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. A Texas grandmother says she's long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from 'her' grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, 'Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers do I hold up?' The caller learned that the game she loved as a child is incredibly widespread throughout the world in various forms, and dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If you're told to 'keep your eyes peeled,' you're being warned to stay alert. But--'peeled'? Where'd we get the expression to 'get someone's goat'? A caller suspects it comes from a Sicilian folk tale. But does it? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired Apr. 11, 2009.] Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced years later. Case in point: 'Rivoli's hummingbird' is now known as the 'magnificent hummingbird.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska takes equal portions of words and numbers, mixes well, and whips up a quiz called 'Initiarithmetic.' The idea is to guess the words based on the initial letters of well-known phrases involving numbers. For example: 'There are 12 M in the Y.' Wait, that was too easy. How about this one: 'There are 2 K of P in the W. T W D the W into T K of P, and T W D.' Is there a way to get youngsters to stop overusing the word 'like'? The mother of a middle-schooler who's picked up the habit wonders where it came from and how she can stop it. Grant and Martha have suggestions, and Martha mentions this enlightening essay about teenagers and 'like' by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg <http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/like.html> 'Chicken bog' isn't a bird name, nor is it a place. It's a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller wonders about the origin of these food terms. By the way, if you like chicken bog, you'll love the annual bog-off in Loris, South Carolina. <http://www.cityofloris.com/production/index.cfm?nextpage=ChickenBog>Some folks use the old-fashioned exclamation 'Good night, nurse!' as a handy substitute for a cussword. But where'd it come from? Grant explains how this phrase became popular in the early 20th century. What's a 'Luddite'? Martha explains that this term for 'someone resistant to technological change' has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. A Texas grandmother says she's long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from 'her' grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, 'Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers do I hold up?' The caller learned that the game she loved as a child is incredibly widespread throughout the world in various forms, and dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If you're told to 'keep your eyes peeled,' you're being warned to stay alert. But--'peeled'? Where'd we get the expression to 'get someone's goat'? A caller suspects it comes from a Sicilian folk tale. But does it? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-02,24902006 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24902007-Moded-Corroded-Your-Booty-Exploded-27-July-2009 [This episode originally aired March 28, 2009.] Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say 'no,' your child hears 'maybe,' and if you say 'maybe,' she hears 'ask again and again, and yes is just around the corner.' Grant and Martha discuss ways that families communicate and miscommunicate. Also in this episode: the West Coast exclamation 'moded!,' the Navy expression 'turn to,' how to pronounce 'llama,' what it means if someone says your car is 'banjaxed,' and more. Grab some popcorn, slip into a folding seat, and you're ready to watch the coming attractions. But if they're shown before the main feature, why in the world are movie previews called 'trailers'? Enjoy old movie trailers <http://www.tcm.com/multimedia/featuredtrailers/> at Turner Classic Movies. It's California in the 1980s, and--uh-oh!--you're outsmarted or caught doing something stupid and someone else says, 'Ooooooooooo, moded!' This Schadenfreudian slip of an express... [This episode originally aired March 28, 2009.] Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say 'no,' your child hears 'maybe,' and if you say 'maybe,' she hears 'ask again and again, and yes is just around the corner.' Grant and Martha discuss ways that families communicate and miscommunicate. Also in this episode: the West Coast exclamation 'moded!,' the Navy expression 'turn to,' how to pronounce 'llama,' what it means if someone says your car is 'banjaxed,' and more. Grab some popcorn, slip into a folding seat, and you're ready to watch the coming attractions. But if they're shown before the main feature, why in the world are movie previews called 'trailers'? Enjoy old movie trailers <http://www.tcm.com/multimedia/featuredtrailers/> at Turner Classic Movies. It's California in the 1980s, and--uh-oh!--you're outsmarted or caught doing something stupid and someone else says, 'Ooooooooooo, moded!' This Schadenfreudian slip of an expression was sometimes accompanied by a chin-stroking gesture, or elaborated still further as 'Moded, corroded, your booty exploded!' Grant has the goods on this expression's likely origin. Check out his entry for itâand the comments of people who know the termâat his dictionary site <http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/moded/>. In a previous episode, <http://www.waywordradio.org/elvis-in-a-cheese-sandwich/>, a caller sought a classy term for a worker in the meat section of a cheese shop, something a little more sophisticated than, say, 'meatmonger.' The helpful suggestions from listeners keep rolling in, and Grant and Martha share a few. Wait, did they really suggest 'carncierge' and 'meatre d''? Quiz Guy Greg Pliska drops in with a word game called 'False Opposites.' They're pairs of words whose prefixes, suffixes, and other elements make them appear to be opposites, even though they're not. For example, what seeming opposites might be derived from the clues 'forward motion' and 'American legislative body'? Feel free to weigh the pros and cons of your answer. Navy veterans will recognize the two-fingered gesture that looks as if someone's turning an invisible doorknob. It accompanies the order 'turn to,' meaning 'get to work.' How did this handy expression get started? If you appropriate something that no one else seems to be using, you may be said to 'kipe' that object. A Wisconsin caller remembers 'kiping' things as a youngster, like a neighbor's leftover wood to build a fort. Grant discusses this regionalism and its possible origins. Is there a distinction to be made between 'envy' and 'jealousy'? The hosts try to parse out the difference. Grant gives a brief review of the new third edition of Paul Dickson's 'The Dickson Baseball Dictionary' <http://www.baseballdictionary.com/>, all 974 pages and 4.5 pounds of it. To some folks, they're 'thermals.' To others, they're 'long underwear.' And some folks call them 'long johns.' Are these warm undergarments named after some guy called John? If your car's broken down you might say it's 'banjaxed,' especially if you're in Ireland. A caller who grew up in Dublin is curious about the word. Martha and Grant revisit the 'apple core, Baltimore' game they discussed a few episodes ago <http://www.waywordradio.org/elvis-in-a-cheese-sandwich/>. Many listeners learned it from this Donald Duck cartoon <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGNIYEYWxm0>. How do you pronounce the word 'llama'? A caller who learned in school that Spanish 'll' is pronounced like English 'y' thinks it's a mistake to pronounce this animal's name as 'LAH-ma.' Is he correct? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode originally aired March 28, 2009.] Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say 'no,' your child hears 'maybe,' and if you say 'maybe,' she hears 'ask again and again, and yes is just around the corner.' Grant and Martha discuss ways that families communicate and miscommunicate. Also in this episode: the West Coast exclamation 'moded!,' the Navy expression 'turn to,' how to pronounce 'llama,' what it means if someone says your car is 'banjaxed,' and more. Grab some popcorn, slip into a folding seat, and you're ready to watch the coming attractions. But if they're shown before the main feature, why in the world are movie previews called 'trailers'? Enjoy old movie trailers <http://www.tcm.com/multimedia/featuredtrailers/> at Turner Classic Movies. It's California in the 1980s, and--uh-oh!--you're outsmarted or caught doing something stupid and someone else says, 'Ooooooooooo, moded!' This Schadenfreudian slip of an expression was sometimes accompanied by a chin-stroking gesture, or elaborated still further as 'Moded, corroded, your booty exploded!' Grant has the goods on this expression's likely origin. Check out his entry for itâand the comments of people who know the termâat his dictionary site <http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/moded/>. In a previous episode, <http://www.waywordradio.org/elvis-in-a-cheese-sandwich/>, a caller sought a classy term for a worker in the meat section of a cheese shop, something a little more sophisticated than, say, 'meatmonger.' The helpful suggestions from listeners keep rolling in, and Grant and Martha share a few. Wait, did they really suggest 'carncierge' and 'meatre d''? Quiz Guy Greg Pliska drops in with a word game called 'False Opposites.' They're pairs of words whose prefixes, suffixes, and other elements make them appear to be opposites, even though they're not. For example, what seeming opposites might be derived from the clues 'forward motion' and 'American legislative body'? Feel free to weigh the pros and cons of your answer. Navy veterans will recognize the two-fingered gesture that looks as if someone's turning an invisible doorknob. It accompanies the order 'turn to,' meaning 'get to work.' How did this handy expression get started? If you appropriate something that no one else seems to be using, you may be said to 'kipe' that object. A Wisconsin caller remembers 'kiping' things as a youngster, like a neighbor's leftover wood to build a fort. Grant discusses this regionalism and its possible origins. Is there a distinction to be made between 'envy' and 'jealousy'? The hosts try to parse out the difference. Grant gives a brief review of the new third edition of Paul Dickson's 'The Dickson Baseball Dictionary' <http://www.baseballdictionary.com/>, all 974 pages and 4.5 pounds of it. To some folks, they're 'thermals.' To others, they're 'long underwear.' And some folks call them 'long johns.' Are these warm undergarments named after some guy called John? If your car's broken down you might say it's 'banjaxed,' especially if you're in Ireland. A caller who grew up in Dublin is curious about the word. Martha and Grant revisit the 'apple core, Baltimore' game they discussed a few episodes ago <http://www.waywordradio.org/elvis-in-a-cheese-sandwich/>. Many listeners learned it from this Donald Duck cartoon <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGNIYEYWxm0>. How do you pronounce the word 'llama'? A caller who learned in school that Spanish 'll' is pronounced like English 'y' thinks it's a mistake to pronounce this animal's name as 'LAH-ma.' Is he correct? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-26,24902007 Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24843558-Magnolia-Mouth-Zero-Plurals-and-Cluster-Simplification-minicast-22-July-2009 An Alabama high-school teacher observes that one of his fellow teachers tends to write words that should be plural as singular, such as 'I graded all 50 test' instead of 'I graded all 50 tests.' The reason for this locution has to do with some interesting features of Southern English. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. An Alabama high-school teacher observes that one of his fellow teachers tends to write words that should be plural as singular, such as 'I graded all 50 test' instead of 'I graded all 50 tests.' The reason for this locution has to do with some interesting features of Southern English. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. An Alabama high-school teacher observes that one of his fellow teachers tends to write words that should be plural as singular, such as 'I graded all 50 test' instead of 'I graded all 50 tests.' The reason for this locution has to do with some interesting features of Southern English. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-21,24843558 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24831823-I-For-One-Welcome-Our-New-Robot-Overlords-20-July-2009 [This episode first aired March 21, 2009.] Sure, there's 'Grandma' and 'Grampa,' but there's also 'Gammy,' 'Bumpy,' 'Dadoo,' 'Gre-Gre,' 'Kiki,' 'Kerkel,' 'Monga,' 'Nee-Nee,' 'Pots,' 'Rah-Rah' and 'Woo-Woo.' Martha and Grant talk about the endlessly inventive names grandchildren call their grandparents.'They also discuss 'Seinfeldisms,' 'couch potatoes,' and where in the world your car can and will be stopped by robots. Really! You've heard people describe something momentous as 'a watershed moment' in history. What is a watershed, exactly? Besides an Indigo Girls' song <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mut_T0GcehI>, that is. In Ireland you'll find that some folks have an odd habit of gasping in mid-conversation. A Texan who lived in Dublin for years says he found this speech trait disconcerting. The hosts explain that this 'pulmonic ingressive' is heard other places around the world. More about ingressives here <http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/Ingressive.htm>, including exa... [This episode first aired March 21, 2009.] Sure, there's 'Grandma' and 'Grampa,' but there's also 'Gammy,' 'Bumpy,' 'Dadoo,' 'Gre-Gre,' 'Kiki,' 'Kerkel,' 'Monga,' 'Nee-Nee,' 'Pots,' 'Rah-Rah' and 'Woo-Woo.' Martha and Grant talk about the endlessly inventive names grandchildren call their grandparents.'They also discuss 'Seinfeldisms,' 'couch potatoes,' and where in the world your car can and will be stopped by robots. Really! You've heard people describe something momentous as 'a watershed moment' in history. What is a watershed, exactly? Besides an Indigo Girls' song <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mut_T0GcehI>, that is. In Ireland you'll find that some folks have an odd habit of gasping in mid-conversation. A Texan who lived in Dublin for years says he found this speech trait disconcerting. The hosts explain that this 'pulmonic ingressive' is heard other places around the world. More about ingressives here <http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/Ingressive.htm>, including examples in audio clips from Sweden and Scotland. Martha shares listener email about what to call that icy buildup in your car's wheel wells. 'Fenderbergs,' anyone? Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle called 'Wordrows,' a.k.a. 'Welded Palindromes.' They're two-word palindromes, in other words. For example, what two-word palindrome means 'beige bug'? Yadda yadda yadda. Newman! No soup for you! The 1990's sitcom 'Seinfeld' popularized these expressions and more. Check out this Paul McFedries article from 'Verbatim' <http://www.verbatimmag.com/28_2.pdf>. What's the origin of the term 'couch potato'? Grant has the story of the guys credited with coining this term for 'boob-tube aficionados.' Your dining companion suddenly starts choking. Once his coughing subsides, he exclaims, 'Whew! Something when down my 'Sunday throat'!' Sunday throat? Martha explains this odd expression. A few episodes back, Grant and Martha discussed what linguists call 'creaky voice.' <http://www.waywordradio.org/chicken-scratches-and-creaky-voice> Many of you wrote to ask for more examples of this curious speech trait. Here are a few <http://www.aip.org/149th/ingle.html>, about halfway down the page. In this week's installment of 'Slang This!,' Grant and Martha are joined by June Casagrande <http://www.grammarsnobs.com/>, author of 'Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get you Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs -- Even If You're Right.' June tries to pick out the true slang terms from a group that includes the expressions 'hot wings,' 'bird farm,' 'bellybag,' and 'budget.' When you're late for something in Johannesburg, you can always say you were 'held up by robots' and no one will think twice. That's because in South Africa, a robot is a traffic light. Check out this haunting video called 'Death of a Robot' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI9jgmO8_oA>. The hosts discuss this and other terms for those helpful semaphores. What's the best style guide for online writing? In William Howitt's 'Madam Dorrington of the Dene' <http://books.google.com/books?id=07QBAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA13&dq=(%22work+brittle%22+OR+%22work+brickle%22+OR+%22work+brickel%22)+date:1800-1890&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=lfXESaLrJ6HQMt7J0ewN>, a character named Vincent says, 'Don't let my father be fearful of me. I will be as ravenously ambitious, and as gigantically 'work-brickle' [...] as he can desire.' Grant has the goods on the dialect expression 'work-brittle' or 'work brickle,' which means 'energetic' or 'industrious.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired March 21, 2009.] Sure, there's 'Grandma' and 'Grampa,' but there's also 'Gammy,' 'Bumpy,' 'Dadoo,' 'Gre-Gre,' 'Kiki,' 'Kerkel,' 'Monga,' 'Nee-Nee,' 'Pots,' 'Rah-Rah' and 'Woo-Woo.' Martha and Grant talk about the endlessly inventive names grandchildren call their grandparents.'They also discuss 'Seinfeldisms,' 'couch potatoes,' and where in the world your car can and will be stopped by robots. Really! You've heard people describe something momentous as 'a watershed moment' in history. What is a watershed, exactly? Besides an Indigo Girls' song <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mut_T0GcehI>, that is. In Ireland you'll find that some folks have an odd habit of gasping in mid-conversation. A Texan who lived in Dublin for years says he found this speech trait disconcerting. The hosts explain that this 'pulmonic ingressive' is heard other places around the world. More about ingressives here <http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/Ingressive.htm>, including examples in audio clips from Sweden and Scotland. Martha shares listener email about what to call that icy buildup in your car's wheel wells. 'Fenderbergs,' anyone? Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle called 'Wordrows,' a.k.a. 'Welded Palindromes.' They're two-word palindromes, in other words. For example, what two-word palindrome means 'beige bug'? Yadda yadda yadda. Newman! No soup for you! The 1990's sitcom 'Seinfeld' popularized these expressions and more. Check out this Paul McFedries article from 'Verbatim' <http://www.verbatimmag.com/28_2.pdf>. What's the origin of the term 'couch potato'? Grant has the story of the guys credited with coining this term for 'boob-tube aficionados.' Your dining companion suddenly starts choking. Once his coughing subsides, he exclaims, 'Whew! Something when down my 'Sunday throat'!' Sunday throat? Martha explains this odd expression. A few episodes back, Grant and Martha discussed what linguists call 'creaky voice.' <http://www.waywordradio.org/chicken-scratches-and-creaky-voice> Many of you wrote to ask for more examples of this curious speech trait. Here are a few <http://www.aip.org/149th/ingle.html>, about halfway down the page. In this week's installment of 'Slang This!,' Grant and Martha are joined by June Casagrande <http://www.grammarsnobs.com/>, author of 'Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get you Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs -- Even If You're Right.' June tries to pick out the true slang terms from a group that includes the expressions 'hot wings,' 'bird farm,' 'bellybag,' and 'budget.' When you're late for something in Johannesburg, you can always say you were 'held up by robots' and no one will think twice. That's because in South Africa, a robot is a traffic light. Check out this haunting video called 'Death of a Robot' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI9jgmO8_oA>. The hosts discuss this and other terms for those helpful semaphores. What's the best style guide for online writing? In William Howitt's 'Madam Dorrington of the Dene' <http://books.google.com/books?id=07QBAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA13&dq=(%22work+brittle%22+OR+%22work+brickle%22+OR+%22work+brickel%22)+date:1800-1890&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=lfXESaLrJ6HQMt7J0ewN>, a character named Vincent says, 'Don't let my father be fearful of me. I will be as ravenously ambitious, and as gigantically 'work-brickle' [...] as he can desire.' Grant has the goods on the dialect expression 'work-brittle' or 'work brickle,' which means 'energetic' or 'industrious.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-19,24831823 Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24792357-A-Walk-Spoiled-But-Our-Lie-is-Good-13-July-2009 [This episode first aired March 14, 2009.] If English isn't your first language, there are lots of ways to learn it, such as memorizing Barack Obama's speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. Martha and Grant talk about some of the unusual ways foreigners are learning to speak English. Also, a golfer wonders if it's ever proper to say 'I'm going golfing' rather than 'I'm going to play golf.' And they share an easy way to remember the difference between 'lie' and 'lay.' Here's the The New Yorker article about Crazy English that Grant mentions. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos> Why do aviators say 'roger' to indicate they've received a message? A pilot phones the show about that, 'wilco,' and similar language. For some golfers, the phrase 'go golfing' is as maddening as a missed two-foot putt. The proper expression, they insist, is 'play golf.' A longtime golfer wonders whether that's true. He's sharp as the corner of a round table' She's so sa... [This episode first aired March 14, 2009.] If English isn't your first language, there are lots of ways to learn it, such as memorizing Barack Obama's speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. Martha and Grant talk about some of the unusual ways foreigners are learning to speak English. Also, a golfer wonders if it's ever proper to say 'I'm going golfing' rather than 'I'm going to play golf.' And they share an easy way to remember the difference between 'lie' and 'lay.' Here's the The New Yorker article about Crazy English that Grant mentions. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos> Why do aviators say 'roger' to indicate they've received a message? A pilot phones the show about that, 'wilco,' and similar language. For some golfers, the phrase 'go golfing' is as maddening as a missed two-foot putt. The proper expression, they insist, is 'play golf.' A longtime golfer wonders whether that's true. He's sharp as the corner of a round table' She's so sad she's pulling a face as long as a fiddle. If startling similes leaving you grinning 'like a basket full of possum heads,' you'll love the book Intensifying Similes in English, published in 1918. It's available at no cost on the Internet Archive. <http://www.archive.org/details/intensifyingsimi00svarrich> Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game called 'Odd One Out,' the object of which is to guess which of four words doesn't belong with the rest. Try this one: dove, job, polish, some. 'Yo!' Why did people ever start using the word 'yo!' to get someone's attention? Grant explains that in English there's mo' than one yo. It's one of the biggest grammatical bugaboos of all, the one that bedevils even the most earnest English students: 'Is it lie or lay?' Martha shares a trick for remembering the difference. See below for her clip-and-save chart of these verbs. Print it out and tape it to your computer. Better yet, laminate it and carry it in your wallet at all times. And if you choose to tattoo it onto some handy part of your body, by all means send us a photo so we can post it on the site. How are things in your 'neck of the woods'? And why heck do we say neck? Grant reads a few lines from a favorite poem:'A New Song of New Similes' by John Gay. It also appears in the front of the book 'Intensifying Similes in English' linked above. <http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/gaysimilespoem.htm> In this week's installment of 'Slang This!,' the president of the National Puzzlersâ League tries to pick out the slang terms from a list that includes 'poguey,' 'pushover,' 'noodles,' and 'naff.' In a 1936 episode of Jack Benny's radio show, a woman says that her father sprained his ankle the night before while 'truckinâ.' This has an 'A Way with Words' listener confused; she thought trucking was a term from the 1970s. Grant clears up the mystery, and along the way inspires Martha to bust some moves. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Benny> Grant explains the connection between 'sauce' and 'don't sass me.' Why do some people pronounce the word 'wash' as 'warsh'? Martha and Grant discuss the so-called 'intrusive R' and why it makes people say 'warsh' instead of 'wash' and 'Warshington' instead of 'Washington.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired March 14, 2009.] If English isn't your first language, there are lots of ways to learn it, such as memorizing Barack Obama's speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention. Martha and Grant talk about some of the unusual ways foreigners are learning to speak English. Also, a golfer wonders if it's ever proper to say 'I'm going golfing' rather than 'I'm going to play golf.' And they share an easy way to remember the difference between 'lie' and 'lay.' Here's the The New Yorker article about Crazy English that Grant mentions. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos> Why do aviators say 'roger' to indicate they've received a message? A pilot phones the show about that, 'wilco,' and similar language. For some golfers, the phrase 'go golfing' is as maddening as a missed two-foot putt. The proper expression, they insist, is 'play golf.' A longtime golfer wonders whether that's true. He's sharp as the corner of a round table' She's so sad she's pulling a face as long as a fiddle. If startling similes leaving you grinning 'like a basket full of possum heads,' you'll love the book Intensifying Similes in English, published in 1918. It's available at no cost on the Internet Archive. <http://www.archive.org/details/intensifyingsimi00svarrich> Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game called 'Odd One Out,' the object of which is to guess which of four words doesn't belong with the rest. Try this one: dove, job, polish, some. 'Yo!' Why did people ever start using the word 'yo!' to get someone's attention? Grant explains that in English there's mo' than one yo. It's one of the biggest grammatical bugaboos of all, the one that bedevils even the most earnest English students: 'Is it lie or lay?' Martha shares a trick for remembering the difference. See below for her clip-and-save chart of these verbs. Print it out and tape it to your computer. Better yet, laminate it and carry it in your wallet at all times. And if you choose to tattoo it onto some handy part of your body, by all means send us a photo so we can post it on the site. How are things in your 'neck of the woods'? And why heck do we say neck? Grant reads a few lines from a favorite poem:'A New Song of New Similes' by John Gay. It also appears in the front of the book 'Intensifying Similes in English' linked above. <http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/gaysimilespoem.htm> In this week's installment of 'Slang This!,' the president of the National Puzzlersâ League tries to pick out the slang terms from a list that includes 'poguey,' 'pushover,' 'noodles,' and 'naff.' In a 1936 episode of Jack Benny's radio show, a woman says that her father sprained his ankle the night before while 'truckinâ.' This has an 'A Way with Words' listener confused; she thought trucking was a term from the 1970s. Grant clears up the mystery, and along the way inspires Martha to bust some moves. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Benny> Grant explains the connection between 'sauce' and 'don't sass me.' Why do some people pronounce the word 'wash' as 'warsh'? Martha and Grant discuss the so-called 'intrusive R' and why it makes people say 'warsh' instead of 'wash' and 'Warshington' instead of 'Washington.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-12,24792357 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24771968-Trespasses-vs-Debts-9-July-2009 A caller wonders why some versions of The Lord's Prayer include the phrase 'forgive us our trespasses,' while others substitute the word 'debt.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio A caller wonders why some versions of The Lord's Prayer include the phrase 'forgive us our trespasses,' while others substitute the word 'debt.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio A caller wonders why some versions of The Lord's Prayer include the phrase 'forgive us our trespasses,' while others substitute the word 'debt.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-07-08,24771968 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24767293-Postal-Abbreviations-8-July-2009 What's the deal with using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states, instead of the longer, more formal abbreviations? That is, why write IN for Indiana instead of good old Ind.? A caller is annoyed by U.S. Postal Service abbreviations creeping into modern prose, and thinks they should be reserved for postal addresses. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio What's the deal with using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states, instead of the longer, more formal abbreviations? That is, why write IN for Indiana instead of good old Ind.? A caller is annoyed by U.S. Postal Service abbreviations creeping into modern prose, and thinks they should be reserved for postal addresses. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio What's the deal with using the two-letter postal code abbreviations for states, instead of the longer, more formal abbreviations? That is, why write IN for Indiana instead of good old Ind.? A caller is annoyed by U.S. Postal Service abbreviations creeping into modern prose, and thinks they should be reserved for postal addresses. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-07-07,24767293 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24746625-Tweet-Tweet-Polly-Wanna-Cracker-6-July-2009 [This episode originally aired February 28, 2009.] 'Twittering,' 'tweeting,' 'twirting'--it's rare to see a whole new body of language appear right before your eyes. But that's what's happening with 'Twitter.' We discuss the snappy new shorthand of the 'twitterati.' Also, why do people feel compelled to say 'Polly wanna cracker'? whenever they see a parrot? And is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'? For a closer look at the language of the 'twitterati,' check out Erin McKean's recent piece in the 'Boston Globe.' http://boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/08/all_a_twitter/ Glossaries of Twitter-related terms can be found at Twittonary <http://twittonary.com/>, Twittionary <http://twittionary.wetpaint.com/>, and Twictionary <http://twictionary.pbwiki.com>. We didn't say all the coinages were clever! By the way, you can now follow 'A Way with Words' on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his... [This episode originally aired February 28, 2009.] 'Twittering,' 'tweeting,' 'twirting'--it's rare to see a whole new body of language appear right before your eyes. But that's what's happening with 'Twitter.' We discuss the snappy new shorthand of the 'twitterati.' Also, why do people feel compelled to say 'Polly wanna cracker'? whenever they see a parrot? And is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'? For a closer look at the language of the 'twitterati,' check out Erin McKean's recent piece in the 'Boston Globe.' http://boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/08/all_a_twitter/ Glossaries of Twitter-related terms can be found at Twittonary <http://twittonary.com/>, Twittionary <http://twittionary.wetpaint.com/>, and Twictionary <http://twictionary.pbwiki.com>. We didn't say all the coinages were clever! By the way, you can now follow 'A Way with Words' on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his bird, they invariably ask the question 'Polly wanna cracker?' He wonders about the origin of that psittacine phrase. 'Psittacine'? It means parrot-like. http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/P0632100.html One of the earliest uses of the phrase so far found is this fake advertisement from the mock newspaper the 'Bunkum Flag-Staff and Independent Echo' published in 1849 in 'The Knickerbocker' magazine. http://tinyurl.com/btaj2r It starts, 'For sale, a Poll Parrot, cheap. He says a remarkable variety of words and phrases, cries, 'Fire! fire!; and 'You rascal!' and 'Polly want a cracker,' and would not be parted with, but having been brought up with a sea-captain he is profane and swears too much.' Below, a cartoon from 'The John-Donkey,' July 29, 1848, p. 47, via Proquest American Periodical Series. 'The John-Donkey' was a short-lived humorous and satirical magazine edited by Thomas Dunn English. http://www.waywordradio.org/polly-want-a-cracker-1848.bg.gif Is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'? Oh, is it ever! Martha and Grant do their best to bury this tired old proscription. It's a baseless rule concocted by 17-century grammarians, and it's errant nonsense up with which your hosts will not put. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a 'puzzle' in which participants try to guess a word that could logically go before or after each of a trio of words. For example, if the three words are 'nest,' 'calories,' and 'suit,' the answer is 'empty,' as in 'empty nest,' 'empty calories,' and 'empty suit.' So, can you guess why Greg calls this puzzle 'Crown Play Time'? 'Toward vs. towards': is it more correct to say 'toward an object' or 'towards an object'? Well, which side of the Atlantic are you on? Martha tries out a couple of 'old-fashioned riddles' on Grant. Here's one: 'What goes around the world, but stays in a corner?' An F-18 fighter pilot worries that a term he and his colleagues often use isn't 'a legitimate word.' It's 'deconflict,' which means to ensure that aircraft aren't in the same airspace. Grant reassures him that deconflict is a perfectly respectable term. Is there a word for '@#$%!^*)!&!,' those typographical symbols standing in for profanity? There is indeed. It's 'grawlix'--not to be confused with 'jarns,' 'quimps,' 'nittles,' 'lucaflects,' or 'plewds.' For more on such terms, check out cartoonist 'Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook.' http://tinyurl.com/b8davp There's also an amazing list of grawlixes used in cartoons and comics from 1911 to 2008: http://www.statoids.com/comicana/grawlist.html Grant answers a letter from a listener who wonders if it's ever correct to use the word 'fishes' instead of 'fish.' In this weekâs round of 'Slang This!', a member of the National Puzzlers League <http://www.puzzlers.org> tries to separate the real slang terms from the fake ones. For example, which of following expressions is British rhyming slang for 'wife': 'boiler house' or 'the stitches'? And which of these is prison slang for 'cake' or 'candy': 'cho-cho' or 'grimpen mire'? What do you call 'the nasty black mixture of snow and ice that builds up in your car's wheel wells' in wintry weather? Is there a word for this frigid gunk? Various names have been floating around, including 'hunkers,' 'snard,' 'snowlactites,' 'knobacles,' 'slud,' 'snowtice,' 'grice,' 'carsicles,' and 'snirt.' A caller shares another her own family uses, 'braxis.' If people are on warmly congenial terms, they're said to 'get on 'like a house on fire.' Yet an Irishwoman says when she uses this expression in the U.S., she often gets puzzled looks. Is the expression that unusual? When something's crooked, some people describe it as 'catawampus,' or 'cattywampus,' or 'kittywampus.' A caller wonders about the historical roots of all these words. Anything to do with felines? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio [This episode originally aired February 28, 2009.] 'Twittering,' 'tweeting,' 'twirting'--it's rare to see a whole new body of language appear right before your eyes. But that's what's happening with 'Twitter.' We discuss the snappy new shorthand of the 'twitterati.' Also, why do people feel compelled to say 'Polly wanna cracker'? whenever they see a parrot? And is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'? For a closer look at the language of the 'twitterati,' check out Erin McKean's recent piece in the 'Boston Globe.' http://boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/02/08/all_a_twitter/ Glossaries of Twitter-related terms can be found at Twittonary <http://twittonary.com/>, Twittionary <http://twittionary.wetpaint.com/>, and Twictionary <http://twictionary.pbwiki.com>. We didn't say all the coinages were clever! By the way, you can now follow 'A Way with Words' on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ A man who owns a parrot says that when people see his bird, they invariably ask the question 'Polly wanna cracker?' He wonders about the origin of that psittacine phrase. 'Psittacine'? It means parrot-like. http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/P0632100.html One of the earliest uses of the phrase so far found is this fake advertisement from the mock newspaper the 'Bunkum Flag-Staff and Independent Echo' published in 1849 in 'The Knickerbocker' magazine. http://tinyurl.com/btaj2r It starts, 'For sale, a Poll Parrot, cheap. He says a remarkable variety of words and phrases, cries, 'Fire! fire!; and 'You rascal!' and 'Polly want a cracker,' and would not be parted with, but having been brought up with a sea-captain he is profane and swears too much.' Below, a cartoon from 'The John-Donkey,' July 29, 1848, p. 47, via Proquest American Periodical Series. 'The John-Donkey' was a short-lived humorous and satirical magazine edited by Thomas Dunn English. http://www.waywordradio.org/polly-want-a-cracker-1848.bg.gif Is it ever okay to 'end a sentence with a preposition'? Oh, is it ever! Martha and Grant do their best to bury this tired old proscription. It's a baseless rule concocted by 17-century grammarians, and it's errant nonsense up with which your hosts will not put. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a 'puzzle' in which participants try to guess a word that could logically go before or after each of a trio of words. For example, if the three words are 'nest,' 'calories,' and 'suit,' the answer is 'empty,' as in 'empty nest,' 'empty calories,' and 'empty suit.' So, can you guess why Greg calls this puzzle 'Crown Play Time'? 'Toward vs. towards': is it more correct to say 'toward an object' or 'towards an object'? Well, which side of the Atlantic are you on? Martha tries out a couple of 'old-fashioned riddles' on Grant. Here's one: 'What goes around the world, but stays in a corner?' An F-18 fighter pilot worries that a term he and his colleagues often use isn't 'a legitimate word.' It's 'deconflict,' which means to ensure that aircraft aren't in the same airspace. Grant reassures him that deconflict is a perfectly respectable term. Is there a word for '@#$%!^*)!&!,' those typographical symbols standing in for profanity? There is indeed. It's 'grawlix'--not to be confused with 'jarns,' 'quimps,' 'nittles,' 'lucaflects,' or 'plewds.' For more on such terms, check out cartoonist 'Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook.' http://tinyurl.com/b8davp There's also an amazing list of grawlixes used in cartoons and comics from 1911 to 2008: http://www.statoids.com/comicana/grawlist.html Grant answers a letter from a listener who wonders if it's ever correct to use the word 'fishes' instead of 'fish.' In this weekâs round of 'Slang This!', a member of the National Puzzlers League <http://www.puzzlers.org> tries to separate the real slang terms from the fake ones. For example, which of following expressions is British rhyming slang for 'wife': 'boiler house' or 'the stitches'? And which of these is prison slang for 'cake' or 'candy': 'cho-cho' or 'grimpen mire'? What do you call 'the nasty black mixture of snow and ice that builds up in your car's wheel wells' in wintry weather? Is there a word for this frigid gunk? Various names have been floating around, including 'hunkers,' 'snard,' 'snowlactites,' 'knobacles,' 'slud,' 'snowtice,' 'grice,' 'carsicles,' and 'snirt.' A caller shares another her own family uses, 'braxis.' If people are on warmly congenial terms, they're said to 'get on 'like a house on fire.' Yet an Irishwoman says when she uses this expression in the U.S., she often gets puzzled looks. Is the expression that unusual? When something's crooked, some people describe it as 'catawampus,' or 'cattywampus,' or 'kittywampus.' A caller wonders about the historical roots of all these words. Anything to do with felines? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-07-05,24746625 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24722607-That-s-What-Friend-is-For-Minicast-18-June-2009 How can the word 'friend' possibly describe both the people you went to school with *and* the people to whom you are connected through Facebook and MySpace? Are friends on the social sites really friends? Is there a better word to describe someone who follows you on Twitter? A caller thinks the English language could use some new words to differentiate among varying levels and types of friendship. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio How can the word 'friend' possibly describe both the people you went to school with *and* the people to whom you are connected through Facebook and MySpace? Are friends on the social sites really friends? Is there a better word to describe someone who follows you on Twitter? A caller thinks the English language could use some new words to differentiate among varying levels and types of friendship. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio How can the word 'friend' possibly describe both the people you went to school with *and* the people to whom you are connected through Facebook and MySpace? Are friends on the social sites really friends? Is there a better word to describe someone who follows you on Twitter? A caller thinks the English language could use some new words to differentiate among varying levels and types of friendship. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-06-17,24722607 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24717070-Great-Googly-Moogly-Minicast-17-June-2009 'Great Googly Moogly!' A caller wonders where that exclamation comes from. Here's the Snickers commercial that includes the phrase.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAXLayoMKI -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio 'Great Googly Moogly!' A caller wonders where that exclamation comes from. Here's the Snickers commercial that includes the phrase.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAXLayoMKI -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio 'Great Googly Moogly!' A caller wonders where that exclamation comes from. Here's the Snickers commercial that includes the phrase.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAXLayoMKI -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-06-16,24717070 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24711184-Summer-Housekeeping-Minicast-16-June-2009 A special message for podcast listeners. Also, this just in: The term gunny sack is a pleonasm! Who knew? (So sue us -- we can't help getting excited about that kind of thing.) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio A special message for podcast listeners. Also, this just in: The term gunny sack is a pleonasm! Who knew? (So sue us -- we can't help getting excited about that kind of thing.) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio A special message for podcast listeners. Also, this just in: The term gunny sack is a pleonasm! Who knew? (So sue us -- we can't help getting excited about that kind of thing.) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio tag:odeo.com,2009-06-15,24711184 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24664710-Bogarting-Bangers-8-June-2009 Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You ... Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You know that odd feeling when you've listened to a radio personality for years, but when you finally meet them, they look nothing like you'd imagined? Is there a word for that weird disconnect? 'Radiofreude,' maybe? Martha shares what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard had to say about exclamation marks. Short version: Neither is a fan. Quiz Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska lead a couple of rounds of 'Chain Reaction,' a word game that's great for parties and long car rides. Two players try to make a third one guess the word that the other two are thinking of. The trick is that they have to give alternating one-word clues to build a sentence. Hilarity ensues. Hillary sues. Why do some people refer to a couch or a sofa as a 'davenport'? How should you pronounce the word 'gala' <http://www.bartleby.com/61/9/G0010900.html>? Grant reports some etymological news: A recent article in the journal American Speech suggests a new source for the term that means 'drunk,' 'blotto.' If you're in New Zealand and are told to 'rattle your dags,' you'd better get a move on. Literally, though, the expression has to do with sheep butts. Martha reviews the new book, 'Dreaming in Hindi,' by Katherine Russell Rich <http://www.katherinerussellrich.com/>, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to interview experts about the mechanics of second-language acquisition and how it affects the brain. Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Rich <http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6658373.html?industryid=47148>. Grant discusses an article about what happens to the mother tongue voice <http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/12213619/Do-anglophones-paddle-in-the-s.html?h=B> when first-language speakers of indigenous languages in India learn English and then spend years focused on speaking and writing in their adopted tongue. How did the word 'pigeonhole' come to mean 'classify' or 'categorize'? An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a 'golden parachute.' Where'd that term come from? A caller is adamant honorifics should be used to address the President of the United States, as in 'President Obama,' never 'Mr. Obama.' He thinks it's disrespectful and divisive when news organizations use 'Mr.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation>, known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject <http://www.slate.com/id/2173076/pagenum/all/> a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yMj0JGLWs>) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You know that odd feeling when you've listened to a radio personality for years, but when you finally meet them, they look nothing like you'd imagined? Is there a word for that weird disconnect? 'Radiofreude,' maybe? Martha shares what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard had to say about exclamation marks. Short version: Neither is a fan. Quiz Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska lead a couple of rounds of 'Chain Reaction,' a word game that's great for parties and long car rides. Two players try to make a third one guess the word that the other two are thinking of. The trick is that they have to give alternating one-word clues to build a sentence. Hilarity ensues. Hillary sues. Why do some people refer to a couch or a sofa as a 'davenport'? How should you pronounce the word 'gala' <http://www.bartleby.com/61/9/G0010900.html>? Grant reports some etymological news: A recent article in the journal American Speech suggests a new source for the term that means 'drunk,' 'blotto.' If you're in New Zealand and are told to 'rattle your dags,' you'd better get a move on. Literally, though, the expression has to do with sheep butts. Martha reviews the new book, 'Dreaming in Hindi,' by Katherine Russell Rich <http://www.katherinerussellrich.com/>, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to interview experts about the mechanics of second-language acquisition and how it affects the brain. Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Rich <http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6658373.html?industryid=47148>. Grant discusses an article about what happens to the mother tongue voice <http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/12213619/Do-anglophones-paddle-in-the-s.html?h=B> when first-language speakers of indigenous languages in India learn English and then spend years focused on speaking and writing in their adopted tongue. How did the word 'pigeonhole' come to mean 'classify' or 'categorize'? An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a 'golden parachute.' Where'd that term come from? A caller is adamant honorifics should be used to address the President of the United States, as in 'President Obama,' never 'Mr. Obama.' He thinks it's disrespectful and divisive when news organizations use 'Mr.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-08,24664710 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:27:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24643452-Falling-off-the-Wagon-minicast-3-June-2009 Why do we say someone is 'on the wagon' when they abstain from drinking alcohol? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Why do we say someone is 'on the wagon' when they abstain from drinking alcohol? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Why do we say someone is 'on the wagon' when they abstain from drinking alcohol? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-02,24643452 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24637364-Days-of-Wine-Flights-and-Mullets-1-June-2009 [This episode first aired January 24, 2009.] President Barack Obama hopes to boost the economy by pouring federal dollars into efforts to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, much like the old Works Progress Administration of the 1930s. But how about reviving that other jobs program from the New Deal era: the 'Federal Writers Project.' Martha and Grant discuss the pros and cons of subsidizing writers with taxpayer money. A caller from Juneau, Alaska, says she was tickled when her friend from the South told her he loves 'vye-EEN-ers.' It took a while before she realized he was saying Viennas, as in that finger food so often found a can, the' Vienna sausage.' So, just how common is the pronunciation 'vye-EEN-er'? It's been called the 'ape drape,' the 'Kentucky waterfall,' the 'Tennessee top hat,' 'hockey hair,' and the '90-10.' We're talking about that haircut called the 'mullet,' otherwise known as 'business in the front, and party in the back.' But why 'mullet'? The word 'borborygmi... [This episode first aired January 24, 2009.] President Barack Obama hopes to boost the economy by pouring federal dollars into efforts to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, much like the old Works Progress Administration of the 1930s. But how about reviving that other jobs program from the New Deal era: the 'Federal Writers Project.' Martha and Grant discuss the pros and cons of subsidizing writers with taxpayer money. A caller from Juneau, Alaska, says she was tickled when her friend from the South told her he loves 'vye-EEN-ers.' It took a while before she realized he was saying Viennas, as in that finger food so often found a can, the' Vienna sausage.' So, just how common is the pronunciation 'vye-EEN-er'? It's been called the 'ape drape,' the 'Kentucky waterfall,' the 'Tennessee top hat,' 'hockey hair,' and the '90-10.' We're talking about that haircut called the 'mullet,' otherwise known as 'business in the front, and party in the back.' But why 'mullet'? The word 'borborygmic' means 'pertaining to rumblings in one's tummy or intestines.' Martha explains that it comes from the Greek word 'borborygmus' ('bor-buh-RIG-muss'), a fine example of onomatopoeia if ever there was one. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a word game in which the object is to guess the 'color-related terms' suggested by his clues. Try this one: What color-coded term is suggested by the phrase 'information gained without serious effort'? What do you call the 'strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk'? Depending on where you live, you may call it a 'tree lawn,' a 'berm,' a 'city strip,' the 'parking,' or one of a host of other regional terms for it. In a small part of the country, this narrow piece of land called a 'devil strip.' In fact, this expression figures in a great story about forensic linguistics: When a linguist analyzed a ransom note and saw the term devil strip, he realized this was a telltale clue--one that would lead authorities right to the kidnapper. Does the English expression 'falling in love' derive from the biblical story of Rebekah and Isaac? A caller thinks so. The hosts don't think so. You may have used the expression, 'Nobody here but us chickens!' Would you still use it if you knew its origins lie in a racist joke from the turn of the 20th century? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/almost-up-to-possible/>, the hosts heard from a woman who, as a teenager, was scolded by her grandmother for wearing a skirt that Granny said was 'almost up to possible.' The woman wondered about that phrase's meaning and origin. Grant shares listener email about this question, plus information he's found linking the term to James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. This weekâs âSlang This!â contestant from the National Puzzlersâ Leaguetries to pick out the real slang terms from a puzzle that includes the expressions 'board butter,' 'cap room,' 'mad pancakes,' and 'mad gangster.' http://puzzlers.org/dokuwiki/doku.php Is the proper expression 'in regards to' or 'in regard to'? In regard to this question, the hosts say, the answer is clear and unambiguous. A sampling of several kinds of wine is called a 'flight.' But why? And while we're on the subject of sampling lots of different savory things, what's the 'difference between a smorgasbord and a buffet'? Or is there one? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC [This episode first aired January 24, 2009.] President Barack Obama hopes to boost the economy by pouring federal dollars into efforts to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, much like the old Works Progress Administration of the 1930s. But how about reviving that other jobs program from the New Deal era: the 'Federal Writers Project.' Martha and Grant discuss the pros and cons of subsidizing writers with taxpayer money. A caller from Juneau, Alaska, says she was tickled when her friend from the South told her he loves 'vye-EEN-ers.' It took a while before she realized he was saying Viennas, as in that finger food so often found a can, the' Vienna sausage.' So, just how common is the pronunciation 'vye-EEN-er'? It's been called the 'ape drape,' the 'Kentucky waterfall,' the 'Tennessee top hat,' 'hockey hair,' and the '90-10.' We're talking about that haircut called the 'mullet,' otherwise known as 'business in the front, and party in the back.' But why 'mullet'? The word 'borborygmic' means 'pertaining to rumblings in one's tummy or intestines.' Martha explains that it comes from the Greek word 'borborygmus' ('bor-buh-RIG-muss'), a fine example of onomatopoeia if ever there was one. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a word game in which the object is to guess the 'color-related terms' suggested by his clues. Try this one: What color-coded term is suggested by the phrase 'information gained without serious effort'? What do you call the 'strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk'? Depending on where you live, you may call it a 'tree lawn,' a 'berm,' a 'city strip,' the 'parking,' or one of a host of other regional terms for it. In a small part of the country, this narrow piece of land called a 'devil strip.' In fact, this expression figures in a great story about forensic linguistics: When a linguist analyzed a ransom note and saw the term devil strip, he realized this was a telltale clue--one that would lead authorities right to the kidnapper. Does the English expression 'falling in love' derive from the biblical story of Rebekah and Isaac? A caller thinks so. The hosts don't think so. You may have used the expression, 'Nobody here but us chickens!' Would you still use it if you knew its origins lie in a racist joke from the turn of the 20th century? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/almost-up-to-possible/>, the hosts heard from a woman who, as a teenager, was scolded by her grandmother for wearing a skirt that Granny said was 'almost up to possible.' The woman wondered about that phrase's meaning and origin. Grant shares listener email about this question, plus information he's found linking the term to James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. This weekâs âSlang This!â contestant from the National Puzzlersâ Leaguetries to pick out the real slang terms from a puzzle that includes the expressions 'board butter,' 'cap room,' 'mad pancakes,' and 'mad gangster.' http://puzzlers.org/dokuwiki/doku.php Is the proper expression 'in regards to' or 'in regard to'? In regard to this question, the hosts say, the answer is clear and unambiguous. A sampling of several kinds of wine is called a 'flight.' But why? And while we're on the subject of sampling lots of different savory things, what's the 'difference between a smorgasbord and a buffet'? Or is there one? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC tag:odeo.com,2009-06-01,24637364 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:05:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24603824-Poets-Laureate-and-Poetry-Brothels-25-May-2009 For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this Henry Wadsw... For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about a ship in a storm-tossed sea. Here's an early edition <http://books.google.com/books?id=MIAUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=wreck+of+the+hesperus&ei=-QYSStXYNoHgkwT8uMHcCQ#PPP1,M1> of the poem, along with some splendid old-fashioned illustrations. If a Scotsman says he 'takes a scunner' to something, he means it gives him a feeling of loathing or revulsion. Grant and Martha discuss this term's possible origins. For more about the word scunner, check out the 'Dictionary of the Scots Language' <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?headerframe=yes&query=scunner&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=all>. Grant reads another poem by Carol Ann Duffy, 'Valentine' <http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Carol_Ann_Duffy/9274>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called 'States of MIND,' in which the answers are words formed by combining the postal abbreviations of states. Try this clue: 'A word that refers to your knowledge or intellectual ability. The seat of your faculty of reason.' The answer? Michigan and North Dakota, the abbreviations for which spell out the word MIND. A recent PBS special about 'Appalachia' has a caller wondering how to pronounce that region's name. Why do we say that someone is inexperienced is 'wet behind the ears'? The hosts tackle that question, and discuss whether Barack Obama misspoke during the 2008 presidential campaign when he used a similar expression, 'green behind the ears.' 'To go on the lam' means 'to flee' or 'attempt to elude capture.' But why 'lam'? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/>, Martha explained the origin of the expression 'to boot,' meaning 'in addition' or 'besides.' That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of 'booting a computer.' Grant has the answer. Martha shares listeners' responses to an earlier minicast <http://www.waywordradio.org/macaroni-and-gravy/> about the Italian-American expression 'macaroni and gravy.' Many people are irritated by using the word 'troops to refer to a small number of soldiers,' as in 'Two troops were wounded.' Is it ever correct to use the word troop to mean an individual person? The hosts explain that in the military, it's actually quite common to use the word troop to refer to just one person. Does the expression 'call a spade a spade' have racist roots? Martha explains that it derives from an ancient Greek phrase, but cautions against its use nevertheless. When you hear the 'F-word' in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the 'F-word' of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? 'I 'literally' exploded with rage!' Using the word 'literally' in this way grates on many a stickler's ear. Moreover, if it's okay to 'use the word 'literally' figuratively, then what do you say when you actually do mean 'literally'? The hosts discuss a related article in 'Slate' called 'The Word We Love to Hate' <http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/>. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. For 341 years, the poets laureate of Britain have all been male. That just changed with the appointment of Britain's new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Her work has been described as 'dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life.' The hosts discuss Duffy's oddly jarring and sensuous poetry. Also this week, they talk about whether it's ever correct to use the word 'troop' to mean an individual person, and whether the word 'literally' is too often used figuratively, as in 'He literally glowed'? Martha reads Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Glad,' which can be found here <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/04/carol-ann-duffy-s-poems-for-children-115875-21330656/> along with several others. 'You look like the wreck of the Hesperus!' It means you look 'disheveled, ragged, dirty, hung over, or otherwise less than your best.' It may sound like an odd phrase, but it made perfect sense to generations of schoolchildren familiar with this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem about a ship in a storm-tossed sea. Here's an early edition <http://books.google.com/books?id=MIAUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=wreck+of+the+hesperus&ei=-QYSStXYNoHgkwT8uMHcCQ#PPP1,M1> of the poem, along with some splendid old-fashioned illustrations. If a Scotsman says he 'takes a scunner' to something, he means it gives him a feeling of loathing or revulsion. Grant and Martha discuss this term's possible origins. For more about the word scunner, check out the 'Dictionary of the Scots Language' <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?headerframe=yes&query=scunner&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=all>. Grant reads another poem by Carol Ann Duffy, 'Valentine' <http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Carol_Ann_Duffy/9274>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called 'States of MIND,' in which the answers are words formed by combining the postal abbreviations of states. Try this clue: 'A word that refers to your knowledge or intellectual ability. The seat of your faculty of reason.' The answer? Michigan and North Dakota, the abbreviations for which spell out the word MIND. A recent PBS special about 'Appalachia' has a caller wondering how to pronounce that region's name. Why do we say that someone is inexperienced is 'wet behind the ears'? The hosts tackle that question, and discuss whether Barack Obama misspoke during the 2008 presidential campaign when he used a similar expression, 'green behind the ears.' 'To go on the lam' means 'to flee' or 'attempt to elude capture.' But why 'lam'? In an earlier episode <http://www.waywordradio.org/words-with-k-in-them-are-funny/>, Martha explained the origin of the expression 'to boot,' meaning 'in addition' or 'besides.' That prompted an email from a listener wanting to know why we speak of 'booting a computer.' Grant has the answer. Martha shares listeners' responses to an earlier minicast <http://www.waywordradio.org/macaroni-and-gravy/> about the Italian-American expression 'macaroni and gravy.' Many people are irritated by using the word 'troops to refer to a small number of soldiers,' as in 'Two troops were wounded.' Is it ever correct to use the word troop to mean an individual person? The hosts explain that in the military, it's actually quite common to use the word troop to refer to just one person. Does the expression 'call a spade a spade' have racist roots? Martha explains that it derives from an ancient Greek phrase, but cautions against its use nevertheless. When you hear the 'F-word' in a modern Hollywood movie about life in an earlier century, you may wonder if this expletive is an anachronism. Is the 'F-word' of recent vintage, or did Hollywood actually get right this time? 'I 'literally' exploded with rage!' Using the word 'literally' in this way grates on many a stickler's ear. Moreover, if it's okay to 'use the word 'literally' figuratively, then what do you say when you actually do mean 'literally'? The hosts discuss a related article in 'Slate' called 'The Word We Love to Hate' <http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/>. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-24,24603824 Sun, 24 May 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24574437-Words-With-K-in-Them-Are-Funny-18-May-2009 Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug... Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug' <http://www.waywordradio.org/like-a-duck-on-a-june-bug/>, which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who's watched plenty of ducks interact with junebugs and offers a vivid description of what that looks like. In this week's puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski is looking for phrases in which the only vowel is the letter A. Try this clue: 'This person said, 'I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant, sometimes it is fearful, but nevertheless, it is inevitable.' Hint: The speaker's first name is the same as one of this show's hosts. What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them 'bascarts.' Check out this dialect map <http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_75.html> featuring these and other names for this device. One definition of a 'shivaree' is 'a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night hideous.' Also spelled 'charivari,' this old-fashioned form of hazing newlyweds often involved interrupting them in the middle of the night with a raucous party. A former Hoosier calls to discuss boyhood memories of a shivaree and wonders about the source of this term. How do you 'pronounce February'? Is it FEB-roo-air-ee or FEB-yew-air-ee? A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it 'a scissors' or 'a pair of scissors'? Grant recommends a couple of favorite children's books by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben: 'Baboon' <http://www.amazon.com/Baboon-Kate-Banks/dp/0374404739/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106164&sr=1-9> and 'The Night Worker' <http://www.amazon.com/Night-Worker-Kate-Banks/dp/0374400008/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106025&sr=1-12>. Martha explains the story behind the expression 'richer than Bim Gump.' Find out more about the long-running comic strip that inspired it here <http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=264&ai=43006&ssd=4/5/2003&arch=y>. The names Australia and Austria are awfully similar. Is it a coincidence? The H1N1 virus has a lot of people wondering about pandemics vs. epidemics. Grant explains the difference. Martha explains the origin of the word 'coin,' as in 'to coin a phrase.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry>. Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug' <http://www.waywordradio.org/like-a-duck-on-a-june-bug/>, which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who's watched plenty of ducks interact with junebugs and offers a vivid description of what that looks like. In this week's puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski is looking for phrases in which the only vowel is the letter A. Try this clue: 'This person said, 'I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant, sometimes it is fearful, but nevertheless, it is inevitable.' Hint: The speaker's first name is the same as one of this show's hosts. What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them 'bascarts.' Check out this dialect map <http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_75.html> featuring these and other names for this device. One definition of a 'shivaree' is 'a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night hideous.' Also spelled 'charivari,' this old-fashioned form of hazing newlyweds often involved interrupting them in the middle of the night with a raucous party. A former Hoosier calls to discuss boyhood memories of a shivaree and wonders about the source of this term. How do you 'pronounce February'? Is it FEB-roo-air-ee or FEB-yew-air-ee? A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it 'a scissors' or 'a pair of scissors'? Grant recommends a couple of favorite children's books by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben: 'Baboon' <http://www.amazon.com/Baboon-Kate-Banks/dp/0374404739/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106164&sr=1-9> and 'The Night Worker' <http://www.amazon.com/Night-Worker-Kate-Banks/dp/0374400008/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242106025&sr=1-12>. Martha explains the story behind the expression 'richer than Bim Gump.' Find out more about the long-running comic strip that inspired it here <http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=264&ai=43006&ssd=4/5/2003&arch=y>. The names Australia and Austria are awfully similar. Is it a coincidence? The H1N1 virus has a lot of people wondering about pandemics vs. epidemics. Grant explains the difference. Martha explains the origin of the word 'coin,' as in 'to coin a phrase.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-17,24574437 Sun, 17 May 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24548261-Hip-Hop-Book-of-Rhymes-13-May-2009 Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. Iâm Grant Barrett. [Music] Hip-hop is high art. Yeah. Thatâs right. And if you donât understand that, then youâre missing out on some of the best poetry. Literary scholar Adam Bradley examines the style and poetry of hip-hop lyrics in his new book titled: Book of Rhymes, the Poetics of Hip-Hop. 'When a rapper's flow is fully realized,' he writes, 'it forges a distinctive rhythmic identity that is governed by both poetic and musical laws.' A hip-hop MCâthe one who sings or chantsâis a rhyme-maker and 'flow' is what an MC has when the rhymes lie easily on top of the rhythm. Rhyme in hip-hop means more than words that sound alike; spitting rhymes is waxing poetic is writing lyrics is storytelling. [Music] There's a structure there, things that are permitted and forbidden in the art form. Rules about accent, pitch, intonation, force. The conventions of poetry are all there. So, these hip-hop lyrics are complex. They are connected to eac... Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. Iâm Grant Barrett. [Music] Hip-hop is high art. Yeah. Thatâs right. And if you donât understand that, then youâre missing out on some of the best poetry. Literary scholar Adam Bradley examines the style and poetry of hip-hop lyrics in his new book titled: Book of Rhymes, the Poetics of Hip-Hop. 'When a rapper's flow is fully realized,' he writes, 'it forges a distinctive rhythmic identity that is governed by both poetic and musical laws.' A hip-hop MCâthe one who sings or chantsâis a rhyme-maker and 'flow' is what an MC has when the rhymes lie easily on top of the rhythm. Rhyme in hip-hop means more than words that sound alike; spitting rhymes is waxing poetic is writing lyrics is storytelling. [Music] There's a structure there, things that are permitted and forbidden in the art form. Rules about accent, pitch, intonation, force. The conventions of poetry are all there. So, these hip-hop lyrics are complex. They are connected to each other across samples, across songs, across albums, across artists, across the decades. They could be mapped like a family tree because a good MC knows the hip-hop canon. [Music] And there is a canon, just as there is in literature. Bradley writes, 'Hip hop is haunted by this sense of tradition. It is a music whose death was announced soon after its birth, and the continuing reports of its demise seemingly return with each passing year.' The old school, the new school, everything that you see in the worlds of prose and in the worlds of poetryâthe complex relationships between creator and consumer, between colleagues and competitors, between art and businessâthose exist in hip-hop. Hip-hop may be the only place in America where poetry still rules, where it is savored and appreciated by a vast, educated audience.  Itâs  where great poetic skill is rewarded with respect, fame, and money, more often than is the case with the precious poetry you might find in tiny pamphlets near the bookstore register. I, for one, believe in the pleasure derived from poetically sophisticated rhymes. And I think they're here to stay. [Music] Adam Bradley's 'Book of Rhymes' is just published by Basic Civitas Books. You can find out more about him at AdamFBradley.com For A Way with Words, Iâm Grant Barrett. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. Iâm Grant Barrett. [Music] Hip-hop is high art. Yeah. Thatâs right. And if you donât understand that, then youâre missing out on some of the best poetry. Literary scholar Adam Bradley examines the style and poetry of hip-hop lyrics in his new book titled: Book of Rhymes, the Poetics of Hip-Hop. 'When a rapper's flow is fully realized,' he writes, 'it forges a distinctive rhythmic identity that is governed by both poetic and musical laws.' A hip-hop MCâthe one who sings or chantsâis a rhyme-maker and 'flow' is what an MC has when the rhymes lie easily on top of the rhythm. Rhyme in hip-hop means more than words that sound alike; spitting rhymes is waxing poetic is writing lyrics is storytelling. [Music] There's a structure there, things that are permitted and forbidden in the art form. Rules about accent, pitch, intonation, force. The conventions of poetry are all there. So, these hip-hop lyrics are complex. They are connected to each other across samples, across songs, across albums, across artists, across the decades. They could be mapped like a family tree because a good MC knows the hip-hop canon. [Music] And there is a canon, just as there is in literature. Bradley writes, 'Hip hop is haunted by this sense of tradition. It is a music whose death was announced soon after its birth, and the continuing reports of its demise seemingly return with each passing year.' The old school, the new school, everything that you see in the worlds of prose and in the worlds of poetryâthe complex relationships between creator and consumer, between colleagues and competitors, between art and businessâthose exist in hip-hop. Hip-hop may be the only place in America where poetry still rules, where it is savored and appreciated by a vast, educated audience.  Itâs  where great poetic skill is rewarded with respect, fame, and money, more often than is the case with the precious poetry you might find in tiny pamphlets near the bookstore register. I, for one, believe in the pleasure derived from poetically sophisticated rhymes. And I think they're here to stay. [Music] Adam Bradley's 'Book of Rhymes' is just published by Basic Civitas Books. You can find out more about him at AdamFBradley.com For A Way with Words, Iâm Grant Barrett. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-13,24548261 Wed, 13 May 2009 07:21:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24548263-Souped-Up-and-Sizzling-11-May-2009 Like mushrooms in fallen leaves, new words keep popping up overnight. Consider the recent coinages frugalista, AFPAK, and fang-bang. Recently, Forbes magazine asked Grant to handicap the chances of these and other neologisms sticking around longer than old-fashioned newspapers. He and Martha discuss these words and whether they have staying power.   You'd be forgiven for wondering if 'eavesdropping' derives from the idea of would-be spies slipping and falling from the eaves of a house. But it doesn't, the hosts explain. Time for a sports question! If an NFL team has a week without having to play a game during the season, it's called a 'bye.' But a caller says he's also heard 'bye week' refer to a week in which a team draws no opponent. Which is correct? Hint: Tie goes to the adjective. In our recent episode, 'Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds' http://www.waywordradio.org/dust-bunnies-and-ghost-turds/ (we just love saying that name) Grant mentioned simping, a slang term for 'the... Like mushrooms in fallen leaves, new words keep popping up overnight. Consider the recent coinages frugalista, AFPAK, and fang-bang. Recently, Forbes magazine asked Grant to handicap the chances of these and other neologisms sticking around longer than old-fashioned newspapers. He and Martha discuss these words and whether they have staying power.   You'd be forgiven for wondering if 'eavesdropping' derives from the idea of would-be spies slipping and falling from the eaves of a house. But it doesn't, the hosts explain. Time for a sports question! If an NFL team has a week without having to play a game during the season, it's called a 'bye.' But a caller says he's also heard 'bye week' refer to a week in which a team draws no opponent. Which is correct? Hint: Tie goes to the adjective. In our recent episode, 'Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds' http://www.waywordradio.org/dust-bunnies-and-ghost-turds/ (we just love saying that name) Grant mentioned simping, a slang term for 'the act of pursuing a woman online in a fawning fashion.' This week, the hosts speculate about the etymological source of simping: 'Cyberpimping'? 'Acting like a simpleton'? 'Simpering'? Quiz Guy and Proud Papa Greg Pliska stops by with a word puzzle in honor of his infant daughter. The quiz is called â what else? -- 'Baby Talk.' What do you call the parents of your son or daughter's spouse? They're your child's in-laws, but what are they in relation to you and your spouse? A caller who spent years in Latin America says Spanish has a specific term for this: consuegro. She's frustrated by the apparent lack of such a term in our own language. 'Well, that was odder than Dick's hatband!' A caller says his mother always used that term. Now he wants to know: Who was Dick? And what was so odd about his headwear? Ever sat down to a turkey dinner where someone offered you a bite of the Pope's nose? That's a name sometimes applied to the bird's fatty rump, which many consider a delicacy. Martha and Grant discuss this and other terms for the so-called 'part that goes over the fence last.' Is this part of a turkey any more appetizing if you call it the parson's nose, the uropygium, or le sot-l'y-laisse? The last of these is a French term for that part of a turkey; roughly translated, it means 'only a silly person won't eat it.' When it comes to books, some people are pack rats; others make a point of periodically culling from the word herd. In a recent New York Times essay, Laura Miller describes her own mixed feelings about getting rid of unwanted books. A full shelf of unread books, she writes, can feel like 'a kind of charm against mortality.' Martha and Grant discuss Miller's essay, 'The Well-Tended Bookshelf.' Read it here. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/review/Miller-t.html?scp=1&sq=laura%20miller%20actuarial&st=cse This week's 'Slang This!' contestant from the National Puzzlers' League http://puzzlers.org/dokuwiki/doku.php tries to pick out the real slang terms from a puzzle that includes the expressions beagle-chased, green-shifted, kiln-fired, and shovel-ready. A caller who grew up with 10 brothers and sisters recalls that whenever sibling squabbles erupted, her parents would intervene with a cheery, 'Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?' The children were expected to respond with: 'Not if it's in cans!' Such silliness, she says, would get everyone laughing, and the dispute would be defused. Grant and Martha discuss this and other handy non-sequiturs. You've modified that car to make it go faster and look sharper. But is your car correctly described as suped up (as in 'supercharged') or 'souped up'? Is there any connection between term Indian summer and the term Indian giver, now regarded as offensive? A caller worries that might be the case, but the hosts assure her it's not.  By the way, that marvelous cultural history of Indian summer that Martha recommends is Beneath the Second Sun, by Adam Sweeting.  http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Second-Sun-Cultural-Revisiting/dp/1584653140 -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Like mushrooms in fallen leaves, new words keep popping up overnight. Consider the recent coinages frugalista, AFPAK, and fang-bang. Recently, Forbes magazine asked Grant to handicap the chances of these and other neologisms sticking around longer than old-fashioned newspapers. He and Martha discuss these words and whether they have staying power.   You'd be forgiven for wondering if 'eavesdropping' derives from the idea of would-be spies slipping and falling from the eaves of a house. But it doesn't, the hosts explain. Time for a sports question! If an NFL team has a week without having to play a game during the season, it's called a 'bye.' But a caller says he's also heard 'bye week' refer to a week in which a team draws no opponent. Which is correct? Hint: Tie goes to the adjective. In our recent episode, 'Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds' http://www.waywordradio.org/dust-bunnies-and-ghost-turds/ (we just love saying that name) Grant mentioned simping, a slang term for 'the act of pursuing a woman online in a fawning fashion.' This week, the hosts speculate about the etymological source of simping: 'Cyberpimping'? 'Acting like a simpleton'? 'Simpering'? Quiz Guy and Proud Papa Greg Pliska stops by with a word puzzle in honor of his infant daughter. The quiz is called â what else? -- 'Baby Talk.' What do you call the parents of your son or daughter's spouse? They're your child's in-laws, but what are they in relation to you and your spouse? A caller who spent years in Latin America says Spanish has a specific term for this: consuegro. She's frustrated by the apparent lack of such a term in our own language. 'Well, that was odder than Dick's hatband!' A caller says his mother always used that term. Now he wants to know: Who was Dick? And what was so odd about his headwear? Ever sat down to a turkey dinner where someone offered you a bite of the Pope's nose? That's a name sometimes applied to the bird's fatty rump, which many consider a delicacy. Martha and Grant discuss this and other terms for the so-called 'part that goes over the fence last.' Is this part of a turkey any more appetizing if you call it the parson's nose, the uropygium, or le sot-l'y-laisse? The last of these is a French term for that part of a turkey; roughly translated, it means 'only a silly person won't eat it.' When it comes to books, some people are pack rats; others make a point of periodically culling from the word herd. In a recent New York Times essay, Laura Miller describes her own mixed feelings about getting rid of unwanted books. A full shelf of unread books, she writes, can feel like 'a kind of charm against mortality.' Martha and Grant discuss Miller's essay, 'The Well-Tended Bookshelf.' Read it here. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/review/Miller-t.html?scp=1&sq=laura%20miller%20actuarial&st=cse This week's 'Slang This!' contestant from the National Puzzlers' League http://puzzlers.org/dokuwiki/doku.php tries to pick out the real slang terms from a puzzle that includes the expressions beagle-chased, green-shifted, kiln-fired, and shovel-ready. A caller who grew up with 10 brothers and sisters recalls that whenever sibling squabbles erupted, her parents would intervene with a cheery, 'Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?' The children were expected to respond with: 'Not if it's in cans!' Such silliness, she says, would get everyone laughing, and the dispute would be defused. Grant and Martha discuss this and other handy non-sequiturs. You've modified that car to make it go faster and look sharper. But is your car correctly described as suped up (as in 'supercharged') or 'souped up'? Is there any connection between term Indian summer and the term Indian giver, now regarded as offensive? A caller worries that might be the case, but the hosts assure her it's not.  By the way, that marvelous cultural history of Indian summer that Martha recommends is Beneath the Second Sun, by Adam Sweeting.  http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Second-Sun-Cultural-Revisiting/dp/1584653140 -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-10,24548263 Sun, 10 May 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24543375-One-Fell-Swoop-Minicast-6-May-2009 Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop. Did you know that a falcon's eyeballs are so huge that they take up most of its head -- and that those two eyes are separated only by a thin membrane? That's just one of the fun facts I learned from a new book called Falconer on the Edge: A Man, His Birds, and the Vanishing Landscape of the American West. The author, Rachel Dickinson, is married to a falconer. Her book is a glimpse into the world of this centuries-old blood sport. Now, I'll admit it: The blood part makes me queasy. but the book gave me a whole new appreciation for the vocabulary of falconry. Take the word haggard. It describes a worn, tired, gaunt appearance. But did you know that originally haggard applied to birds? Specifically, haggard described an adult female hawk caught in the wild, not raised in captivity. By the 16th century, the word had came to denote anyone similarly 'wild o... Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop. Did you know that a falcon's eyeballs are so huge that they take up most of its head -- and that those two eyes are separated only by a thin membrane? That's just one of the fun facts I learned from a new book called Falconer on the Edge: A Man, His Birds, and the Vanishing Landscape of the American West. The author, Rachel Dickinson, is married to a falconer. Her book is a glimpse into the world of this centuries-old blood sport. Now, I'll admit it: The blood part makes me queasy. but the book gave me a whole new appreciation for the vocabulary of falconry. Take the word haggard. It describes a worn, tired, gaunt appearance. But did you know that originally haggard applied to birds? Specifically, haggard described an adult female hawk caught in the wild, not raised in captivity. By the 16th century, the word had came to denote anyone similarly 'wild or intractable.' Later haggard was applied more generally. In Shakespeare's day, falconry was an aristocratic sport. You see lots of images from it in his plays. There's jealous Othello, fretting that Desdemona may prove to be 'haggard' -- that is, wild and out of his control. Or in Macbeth, the character MacDuff is aghast when he learns that his family's been murdered in 'one fell swoop.' The image of is the way a falcon swoops down from the sky, and strikes with swift ferocity. The 'fell' in 'one fell swoop' is an adjective. It means 'inhumanly cruel.' This fell is a linguistic relative of 'felon.' Then there's the term 'pride of place.' Today it means 'the highest or most important location': as in 'High-definition TVs enjoy pride of place in many living rooms.' Originally, 'pride of place' meant the airy height from which that falcon swoops. You see this phrase in Macbeth, when Shakespeare uses it to suggest that unnatural, ominous things are happening: 'A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.' Anyway, if you want a closer look at the odd and bloody subculture of falconry, check out Dickinson's book. It'll give you a whole new sense of birds and words. http://www.amazon.com/Falconer-Edge-Vanishing-Landscape-American/dp/0618806237 -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Martha muses about the language of falconry, and in the process, reveals the origins of several words and phrases in one fell swoop. Did you know that a falcon's eyeballs are so huge that they take up most of its head -- and that those two eyes are separated only by a thin membrane? That's just one of the fun facts I learned from a new book called Falconer on the Edge: A Man, His Birds, and the Vanishing Landscape of the American West. The author, Rachel Dickinson, is married to a falconer. Her book is a glimpse into the world of this centuries-old blood sport. Now, I'll admit it: The blood part makes me queasy. but the book gave me a whole new appreciation for the vocabulary of falconry. Take the word haggard. It describes a worn, tired, gaunt appearance. But did you know that originally haggard applied to birds? Specifically, haggard described an adult female hawk caught in the wild, not raised in captivity. By the 16th century, the word had came to denote anyone similarly 'wild or intractable.' Later haggard was applied more generally. In Shakespeare's day, falconry was an aristocratic sport. You see lots of images from it in his plays. There's jealous Othello, fretting that Desdemona may prove to be 'haggard' -- that is, wild and out of his control. Or in Macbeth, the character MacDuff is aghast when he learns that his family's been murdered in 'one fell swoop.' The image of is the way a falcon swoops down from the sky, and strikes with swift ferocity. The 'fell' in 'one fell swoop' is an adjective. It means 'inhumanly cruel.' This fell is a linguistic relative of 'felon.' Then there's the term 'pride of place.' Today it means 'the highest or most important location': as in 'High-definition TVs enjoy pride of place in many living rooms.' Originally, 'pride of place' meant the airy height from which that falcon swoops. You see this phrase in Macbeth, when Shakespeare uses it to suggest that unnatural, ominous things are happening: 'A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.' Anyway, if you want a closer look at the odd and bloody subculture of falconry, check out Dickinson's book. It'll give you a whole new sense of birds and words. http://www.amazon.com/Falconer-Edge-Vanishing-Landscape-American/dp/0618806237 -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-05,24543375 Tue, 05 May 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24533204-Going-for-that-Anti-Marketing-Dollar-4-May-2009 In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a c... In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage. It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. <http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.) If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression? Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'? Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she's known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for 'upset' and its likely linguistic roots. Hear the song about 'agita' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcvDI4mZfU> from the movie 'Broadway Danny Rose'. When somebody cuts you off in traffic do you 'feel all stabby'? Grant discusses this slang term. You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby's tummy so he'll giggle? Many people call that a 'raspberry,' but some people call that a 'zerbert.' A caller's husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the term on his popular sitcom. She begs to differ. The expression 'over yonder' isn't just the stuff of Carole King songs and old-timey hymns. To many Southerners, it's everyday English. The hosts discuss this poetic-sounding turn of phrase. For tech-savvy types, saying 'ping me,' meaning 'contact me,' is as natural as grabbing a snack while waiting for your computer to boot up. The hosts disagree about whether the verb to ping has already moved into common parlance in the larger world. It's a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it 'who or whom'? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague's email signature, but he's not sure it's 100% grammatical. The sentence: 'There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot help, cannot comfort, and none we cannot harm.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks <http://www.billhicks.com/>.) Here's a New York Times article <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10adco.html> about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage. It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. <http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html>. Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.) If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression? Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'? Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she's known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for 'upset' and its likely linguistic roots. Hear the song about 'agita' <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcvDI4mZfU> from the movie 'Broadway Danny Rose'. When somebody cuts you off in traffic do you 'feel all stabby'? Grant discusses this slang term. You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby's tummy so he'll giggle? Many people call that a 'raspberry,' but some people call that a 'zerbert.' A caller's husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the term on his popular sitcom. She begs to differ. The expression 'over yonder' isn't just the stuff of Carole King songs and old-timey hymns. To many Southerners, it's everyday English. The hosts discuss this poetic-sounding turn of phrase. For tech-savvy types, saying 'ping me,' meaning 'contact me,' is as natural as grabbing a snack while waiting for your computer to boot up. The hosts disagree about whether the verb to ping has already moved into common parlance in the larger world. It's a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it 'who or whom'? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague's email signature, but he's not sure it's 100% grammatical. The sentence: 'There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot help, cannot comfort, and none we cannot harm.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-03,24533204 Sun, 03 May 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24520817-A-Conversation-with-Roy-Blount-Jr-29-April-2009 Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. As president of the Authors Guild, Blount has argued that writers whose work is featured on the Kindle 2 should earn extra royalties because its text-to-speech feature essentially turns written works into audiobooks. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html Blount also discusses his own recent book, Alphabet Juice, talks about 'sonicky' words and noodling for catfish, and clears up the mystery of whether the cancan dancers at George Plimpton's memorial really did honor the late writer's request that they perform without panties. Read the first chapter of Alphabet Juice here. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/books/chapters/chapter-alphabet-juice.html Find out more about Blount and his work here. http://www.royblountjr.com/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywor... Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. As president of the Authors Guild, Blount has argued that writers whose work is featured on the Kindle 2 should earn extra royalties because its text-to-speech feature essentially turns written works into audiobooks. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html Blount also discusses his own recent book, Alphabet Juice, talks about 'sonicky' words and noodling for catfish, and clears up the mystery of whether the cancan dancers at George Plimpton's memorial really did honor the late writer's request that they perform without panties. Read the first chapter of Alphabet Juice here. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/books/chapters/chapter-alphabet-juice.html Find out more about Blount and his work here. http://www.royblountjr.com/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers' rights and the Amazon Kindle 2. As president of the Authors Guild, Blount has argued that writers whose work is featured on the Kindle 2 should earn extra royalties because its text-to-speech feature essentially turns written works into audiobooks. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html Blount also discusses his own recent book, Alphabet Juice, talks about 'sonicky' words and noodling for catfish, and clears up the mystery of whether the cancan dancers at George Plimpton's memorial really did honor the late writer's request that they perform without panties. Read the first chapter of Alphabet Juice here. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/books/chapters/chapter-alphabet-juice.html Find out more about Blount and his work here. http://www.royblountjr.com/ -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-28,24520817 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24508069-Cut-to-the-Chase-27-April-2009 [This episode first aired December 19, 2008.] There's nothing like an oddly phrased headline to brighten your day. How about 'Actor Sent to Jail for Not Finishing Sentence'? Or 'Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped'? Same for signs that make you do a double take, like 'Senior Citizens! Buy One, Get One Free.' A San Diego caller shares a couple of her favorite oddly worded signs, and the hosts mention a few of their own. If someone's driving you bonkers, you'd be forgiven for grumbling, 'He's such a pill!' But why a pill? Did Grandpa ever enthuse about Grandma's cooking with the words 'Good stuff, Maynard!' A Waukesha, Wisconsin caller remembers his own grandfather doing that, and wants to know how this expression came about. In an earlier episode, http://.waywordradio.org/word-encounters-of-the-first-kind/, we discussed the slang term sketchy, meaning 'creepy' or 'alarming' or 'suspicious.' Grant shares an email from a listener suggesting a link to the world of amphetamine users. Quiz G... [This episode first aired December 19, 2008.] There's nothing like an oddly phrased headline to brighten your day. How about 'Actor Sent to Jail for Not Finishing Sentence'? Or 'Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped'? Same for signs that make you do a double take, like 'Senior Citizens! Buy One, Get One Free.' A San Diego caller shares a couple of her favorite oddly worded signs, and the hosts mention a few of their own. If someone's driving you bonkers, you'd be forgiven for grumbling, 'He's such a pill!' But why a pill? Did Grandpa ever enthuse about Grandma's cooking with the words 'Good stuff, Maynard!' A Waukesha, Wisconsin caller remembers his own grandfather doing that, and wants to know how this expression came about. In an earlier episode, http://.waywordradio.org/word-encounters-of-the-first-kind/, we discussed the slang term sketchy, meaning 'creepy' or 'alarming' or 'suspicious.' Grant shares an email from a listener suggesting a link to the world of amphetamine users. Quiz Guy John Chaneski stops by with a quiz about superlatives. Naturally, his name for the quiz is Best. Puzzle. Ever. Your brother-in-law the motormouth beats around the bush for so long about something that in exasperation you tell him to 'cut to the chase.' The hosts explain the Hollywood roots of this phrase. When Barack Obama intoned, 'I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,' some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word's roots, they insist that enormity means not 'large,' but 'out of the ordinary.' A caller who's been following a heated online dispute about this word asks the hosts for a verdict. They give the president-elect a pass. Remember when Bugs Bunny used to say, 'Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute?' A caller wants to know if cotton-pickin' has racist overtones. In an earlier episode, http://waywordradio.org/a-moniker-for-your-monitor/,we discussed whether there's a word for 'a drawn-out leave-taking'--when, say, a friend says 'goodbye' but keeps thinking of 'one more thing' to say before exiting. Martha suggested the term doorknob-hanging. Several listeners wrote to say that physicians commonly use the terms getting doorknobbed and doorknob question to mean something similar. This week's 'Slang This!' contestant, from Cold Spring, Kentucky, tries to puzzle out the meaning of slang terms, including herky and producer's button. In certain parts of the South, a small, impromptu gift is variously known by the sibilant synonyms sirsee, surcy, searcy, or circe. A South Carolina woman who's heard the word all her life is baffled as to where it came from. Uh-oh. Your credit card's missing. As you frantically search for it, your mind fast-forwards through the bad things that could happen if it's been stolen. Then, to your enormous relief, you find the card. Is there a specific word for that kind of immense relief, when something you've dreaded doesn't happen? On the QT means 'surreptitiously' or 'hush-hush.' Why the letters? Are they an abbreviation? Martha talks about a favorite Latin-based word: pandiculation. It's a term that means 'the stretching that accompanies yawning.' By the way, for more strangely worded signs, check out 'The Bad Sign Brigade' on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/labels4dummies/ For amusing headlines and unfortunate journalistic locutions, we recommend the 'Sic!' section of Michael Quinion's newsletter, available from his site, World Wide Words, http://www.worldwidewords.org. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode first aired December 19, 2008.] There's nothing like an oddly phrased headline to brighten your day. How about 'Actor Sent to Jail for Not Finishing Sentence'? Or 'Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped'? Same for signs that make you do a double take, like 'Senior Citizens! Buy One, Get One Free.' A San Diego caller shares a couple of her favorite oddly worded signs, and the hosts mention a few of their own. If someone's driving you bonkers, you'd be forgiven for grumbling, 'He's such a pill!' But why a pill? Did Grandpa ever enthuse about Grandma's cooking with the words 'Good stuff, Maynard!' A Waukesha, Wisconsin caller remembers his own grandfather doing that, and wants to know how this expression came about. In an earlier episode, http://.waywordradio.org/word-encounters-of-the-first-kind/, we discussed the slang term sketchy, meaning 'creepy' or 'alarming' or 'suspicious.' Grant shares an email from a listener suggesting a link to the world of amphetamine users. Quiz Guy John Chaneski stops by with a quiz about superlatives. Naturally, his name for the quiz is Best. Puzzle. Ever. Your brother-in-law the motormouth beats around the bush for so long about something that in exasperation you tell him to 'cut to the chase.' The hosts explain the Hollywood roots of this phrase. When Barack Obama intoned, 'I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,' some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word's roots, they insist that enormity means not 'large,' but 'out of the ordinary.' A caller who's been following a heated online dispute about this word asks the hosts for a verdict. They give the president-elect a pass. Remember when Bugs Bunny used to say, 'Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute?' A caller wants to know if cotton-pickin' has racist overtones. In an earlier episode, http://waywordradio.org/a-moniker-for-your-monitor/,we discussed whether there's a word for 'a drawn-out leave-taking'--when, say, a friend says 'goodbye' but keeps thinking of 'one more thing' to say before exiting. Martha suggested the term doorknob-hanging. Several listeners wrote to say that physicians commonly use the terms getting doorknobbed and doorknob question to mean something similar. This week's 'Slang This!' contestant, from Cold Spring, Kentucky, tries to puzzle out the meaning of slang terms, including herky and producer's button. In certain parts of the South, a small, impromptu gift is variously known by the sibilant synonyms sirsee, surcy, searcy, or circe. A South Carolina woman who's heard the word all her life is baffled as to where it came from. Uh-oh. Your credit card's missing. As you frantically search for it, your mind fast-forwards through the bad things that could happen if it's been stolen. Then, to your enormous relief, you find the card. Is there a specific word for that kind of immense relief, when something you've dreaded doesn't happen? On the QT means 'surreptitiously' or 'hush-hush.' Why the letters? Are they an abbreviation? Martha talks about a favorite Latin-based word: pandiculation. It's a term that means 'the stretching that accompanies yawning.' By the way, for more strangely worded signs, check out 'The Bad Sign Brigade' on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/labels4dummies/ For amusing headlines and unfortunate journalistic locutions, we recommend the 'Sic!' section of Michael Quinion's newsletter, available from his site, World Wide Words, http://www.worldwidewords.org. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-26,24508069 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24489829-Macaroni-and-Gravy-23-April-2009 This week, we're going through the e-mail bag. Here's a savory, sensuous one. It's from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado. Stacey grew up out West, but says she spent summers and Christmases at the home of her maternal grandparents, just north of New York City. 'This side of my family,' she writes, 'is unapologetically Italian. For me, a highlight of every visit was the night of arrival. My grandma would welcome us home with a big pot of gravy. After the day-long trip to get there, Stacey writes, 'nothing was more comforting or restoring than walking into a Grandma-sized hug, and a house positively perfumed with the sweet, heady scent of garlic and tomatoes.' Now, about that pot of gravy, she writes: 'In Colorado, or anywhere else I've been, it's called marinara sauce. Outside of my family, I have never heard the word gravy used to describe anything other than the brown gravy you put on a turkey at Thanksgiving.' And, she says, 'Hearing the word gravy used in this way evokes just as much ... This week, we're going through the e-mail bag. Here's a savory, sensuous one. It's from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado. Stacey grew up out West, but says she spent summers and Christmases at the home of her maternal grandparents, just north of New York City. 'This side of my family,' she writes, 'is unapologetically Italian. For me, a highlight of every visit was the night of arrival. My grandma would welcome us home with a big pot of gravy. After the day-long trip to get there, Stacey writes, 'nothing was more comforting or restoring than walking into a Grandma-sized hug, and a house positively perfumed with the sweet, heady scent of garlic and tomatoes.' Now, about that pot of gravy, she writes: 'In Colorado, or anywhere else I've been, it's called marinara sauce. Outside of my family, I have never heard the word gravy used to describe anything other than the brown gravy you put on a turkey at Thanksgiving.' And, she says, 'Hearing the word gravy used in this way evokes just as much warmth and contentment as the smell or taste of the gravy itself. I can almost feel my grandmother's bone-crushing hug swallowing me up once again.' Stacey wants to know: Is gravy just her own family's weird word for tomato-based sauce? Or is there anyone else out there who understands what she calls 'the intimate, emotional, have-some-macaroni coziness behind this seemingly simple term.' Stacey, you'll be pleased to know that lots and lots of people refer to this stuff as gravy. In fact, this kind of gravy made an appearance in an episode of the HBO series The Sopranos. A member of the mob in New Jersey goes to Italy. He dines out in Naples. But he can't find what he wants on the menu. Check out what happens. http://tinyurl.com/che59s So, using the word 'gravy' in this way isn't unique one family. But I must add an important word of caution: Many Italian-Americans do call it 'gravy,' but others are adamant -- and I do mean adamant -- about calling it 'sauce.' In fact, you can find some amazingly heated debates online about which is the correct term. In Italian, the word sugo can mean either 'sauce' or 'gravy.' It may be that some Italian immigrants translated it into one English word, while those in other communities used a different English translation. So, pasta lovers: Which is it? Sauce or gravy? Let us know. We'd also like to what other odd food names evoke vivid sensory memories for you. And, as always, we welcome your thoughts about any aspect of language. Our address is words@waywordradio.org. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. This week, we're going through the e-mail bag. Here's a savory, sensuous one. It's from Stacey in Boulder, Colorado. Stacey grew up out West, but says she spent summers and Christmases at the home of her maternal grandparents, just north of New York City. 'This side of my family,' she writes, 'is unapologetically Italian. For me, a highlight of every visit was the night of arrival. My grandma would welcome us home with a big pot of gravy. After the day-long trip to get there, Stacey writes, 'nothing was more comforting or restoring than walking into a Grandma-sized hug, and a house positively perfumed with the sweet, heady scent of garlic and tomatoes.' Now, about that pot of gravy, she writes: 'In Colorado, or anywhere else I've been, it's called marinara sauce. Outside of my family, I have never heard the word gravy used to describe anything other than the brown gravy you put on a turkey at Thanksgiving.' And, she says, 'Hearing the word gravy used in this way evokes just as much warmth and contentment as the smell or taste of the gravy itself. I can almost feel my grandmother's bone-crushing hug swallowing me up once again.' Stacey wants to know: Is gravy just her own family's weird word for tomato-based sauce? Or is there anyone else out there who understands what she calls 'the intimate, emotional, have-some-macaroni coziness behind this seemingly simple term.' Stacey, you'll be pleased to know that lots and lots of people refer to this stuff as gravy. In fact, this kind of gravy made an appearance in an episode of the HBO series The Sopranos. A member of the mob in New Jersey goes to Italy. He dines out in Naples. But he can't find what he wants on the menu. Check out what happens. http://tinyurl.com/che59s So, using the word 'gravy' in this way isn't unique one family. But I must add an important word of caution: Many Italian-Americans do call it 'gravy,' but others are adamant -- and I do mean adamant -- about calling it 'sauce.' In fact, you can find some amazingly heated debates online about which is the correct term. In Italian, the word sugo can mean either 'sauce' or 'gravy.' It may be that some Italian immigrants translated it into one English word, while those in other communities used a different English translation. So, pasta lovers: Which is it? Sauce or gravy? Let us know. We'd also like to what other odd food names evoke vivid sensory memories for you. And, as always, we welcome your thoughts about any aspect of language. Our address is words@waywordradio.org. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-22,24489829 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24472140-Almost-Up-to-Possible-20-April-2009 [This episode originally aired December 13, 2008.] The second edition of the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus is chock-full of synonyms, of course, but what makes it special are the essays and usage notes by authors such as Simon Winchester, David Lehman, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace. Grant talks about his experience working as an editor on this volume--and what David Foster Wallace taught him about language. We all know that the 2008 presidential election was historic. But was it 'an historic' event? Or 'a historic' event? The story goes that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. If that's the case, then we hope it's not long before we're all hearing people exclaim, 'Why, that skirt is almost up to possible!' An Iowa listener recalls that when she was a teen, her granny used that phrase when tsk-tsking about the length of her granddaughter's miniskirt. She wonders about the origin of that expression. In an earlier episode, <http://www.waywordradio.org/riddled-... [This episode originally aired December 13, 2008.] The second edition of the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus is chock-full of synonyms, of course, but what makes it special are the essays and usage notes by authors such as Simon Winchester, David Lehman, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace. Grant talks about his experience working as an editor on this volume--and what David Foster Wallace taught him about language. We all know that the 2008 presidential election was historic. But was it 'an historic' event? Or 'a historic' event? The story goes that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. If that's the case, then we hope it's not long before we're all hearing people exclaim, 'Why, that skirt is almost up to possible!' An Iowa listener recalls that when she was a teen, her granny used that phrase when tsk-tsking about the length of her granddaughter's miniskirt. She wonders about the origin of that expression. In an earlier episode, <http://www.waywordradio.org/riddled-through-with-riddles/>, we speculated about the origin of the phrase go commando, which means to go without underwear. We suggested that it was somehow associated with being 'tough as a commando,' gritting one's teeth through the attendant chafing. But a listener who served as an infantryman in Vietnam has a different take. After a comrade suggested he 'go commando,' he discovered that opting out of his army-issued boxer shorts actually made him more comfortable in the tropical heat. We love these firsthand reports about language, so keep âem coming! Quiz Guy John Chaneski SUBjects Martha and Grant to a SUBlime puzzle in which he SUBmits clues to words that contain the sequence of letters S-U-B. For example, 'a stand-in for an absent teacher' would be a SUBstitute. Now try this one: 'This adjective pizza describes a message pizza embedded in another medium pizza designed to pass below the limits pizza of the mindâs perception pizza. In the 1950s pizza, market researcher James pizza Vicary claimed to be able to pizza influence moviegoers pizza into purchasing popcorn pizza and coke pizza by flashing them pizza images like these pizza.' You hear about political groups canvassing for votes. But why canvas? We talk about the possible origins of this word, and the connection between the material known as canvas and cannabis. There's the late CNN broadcaster William Headline, the preacher named James God, and the physician named Dr. Hurt. Names like these that match the person's profession are called aptronyms or aptonyms. We talk about the man who coined the term aptronym, and toss in a few more examples. Have a favorite aptronym from your own experience? Tell us about it in the discussion forum. <http://tinyurl.com/5h5nfm>. Here's a question more and more same-sex couples face when starting a family: What names will our child call us? 'Mommy and Mama'? 'Mommy and Jane?' Maybe a made-up name? An Ohio woman and her female partner are contemplating having a baby, but can't decide which parental names to use.  This week's Slang This! contestant from the National Puzzlers' League, <http://puzzlers.org>, is an actress from New York City. In this hospital-themed quiz, she tries to guess the meaning of the terms 'sillysoma,' 'fascinoma,' 'happy meal,' and 'code brown.' Slap, slap, slap, slap. Nothing like the satisfying sound of flip-flops on your feet. These floppy-soled shoes go by several other names, including zoris and thongs, but a caller wonders why in some parts of the country they're called go-aheads. You have a pair of gloves, and there are two of them; you have a pair of shoes, and there are two; a pair of socks, and there's one for each foot, right? So why do we have a pair of jeans when it's only one item? Finally today, Martha and Grant talk about two books they love to recommend as gifts: Idiom's Delight by Suzanne Brock, and Karma Wilson's book for children, Bear Snores On, illustrated by Jane Chapman. (Idiom's Delight is out of print, but you can find copies online at places like Alibris.com <http://tinyurl.com/6m9mcg>.) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. [This episode originally aired December 13, 2008.] The second edition of the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus is chock-full of synonyms, of course, but what makes it special are the essays and usage notes by authors such as Simon Winchester, David Lehman, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace. Grant talks about his experience working as an editor on this volume--and what David Foster Wallace taught him about language. We all know that the 2008 presidential election was historic. But was it 'an historic' event? Or 'a historic' event? The story goes that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. If that's the case, then we hope it's not long before we're all hearing people exclaim, 'Why, that skirt is almost up to possible!' An Iowa listener recalls that when she was a teen, her granny used that phrase when tsk-tsking about the length of her granddaughter's miniskirt. She wonders about the origin of that expression. In an earlier episode, <http://www.waywordradio.org/riddled-through-with-riddles/>, we speculated about the origin of the phrase go commando, which means to go without underwear. We suggested that it was somehow associated with being 'tough as a commando,' gritting one's teeth through the attendant chafing. But a listener who served as an infantryman in Vietnam has a different take. After a comrade suggested he 'go commando,' he discovered that opting out of his army-issued boxer shorts actually made him more comfortable in the tropical heat. We love these firsthand reports about language, so keep âem coming! Quiz Guy John Chaneski SUBjects Martha and Grant to a SUBlime puzzle in which he SUBmits clues to words that contain the sequence of letters S-U-B. For example, 'a stand-in for an absent teacher' would be a SUBstitute. Now try this one: 'This adjective pizza describes a message pizza embedded in another medium pizza designed to pass below the limits pizza of the mindâs perception pizza. In the 1950s pizza, market researcher James pizza Vicary claimed to be able to pizza influence moviegoers pizza into purchasing popcorn pizza and coke pizza by flashing them pizza images like these pizza.' You hear about political groups canvassing for votes. But why canvas? We talk about the possible origins of this word, and the connection between the material known as canvas and cannabis. There's the late CNN broadcaster William Headline, the preacher named James God, and the physician named Dr. Hurt. Names like these that match the person's profession are called aptronyms or aptonyms. We talk about the man who coined the term aptronym, and toss in a few more examples. Have a favorite aptronym from your own experience? Tell us about it in the discussion forum. <http://tinyurl.com/5h5nfm>. Here's a question more and more same-sex couples face when starting a family: What names will our child call us? 'Mommy and Mama'? 'Mommy and Jane?' Maybe a made-up name? An Ohio woman and her female partner are contemplating having a baby, but can't decide which parental names to use.  This week's Slang This! contestant from the National Puzzlers' League, <http://puzzlers.org>, is an actress from New York City. In this hospital-themed quiz, she tries to guess the meaning of the terms 'sillysoma,' 'fascinoma,' 'happy meal,' and 'code brown.' Slap, slap, slap, slap. Nothing like the satisfying sound of flip-flops on your feet. These floppy-soled shoes go by several other names, including zoris and thongs, but a caller wonders why in some parts of the country they're called go-aheads. You have a pair of gloves, and there are two of them; you have a pair of shoes, and there are two; a pair of socks, and there's one for each foot, right? So why do we have a pair of jeans when it's only one item? Finally today, Martha and Grant talk about two books they love to recommend as gifts: Idiom's Delight by Suzanne Brock, and Karma Wilson's book for children, Bear Snores On, illustrated by Jane Chapman. (Idiom's Delight is out of print, but you can find copies online at places like Alibris.com <http://tinyurl.com/6m9mcg>.) -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-19,24472140 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24452140-What-s-a-Hobson-s-Choice-15-April-2009 What's a 'Hobson's Choice'? If you're facing a Hobson's choice, you don't really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what's offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice words about the origin of this term. Recently a friend emailed to ask about a curious phrase she'd run across. A newspaper columnist argued that when it comes to fixing the economy, the Obama administration faces a Hobson's choice. In other words, the writer said, shoring up U.S. banks may be wildly unpopular, but economic recovery requires doing exactly that. You might guess from the context that a Hobson's choice isn't really a choice at all. You either take what's offered, or get nothing. A great example is the declaration by automaker Henry Ford. In his 1922 autobiography, Ford wrote that his Model T would be available in any color, quote, 'so long as it is black.' The phrase Hobson's choice goes all the way back to 17th-century En... What's a 'Hobson's Choice'? If you're facing a Hobson's choice, you don't really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what's offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice words about the origin of this term. Recently a friend emailed to ask about a curious phrase she'd run across. A newspaper columnist argued that when it comes to fixing the economy, the Obama administration faces a Hobson's choice. In other words, the writer said, shoring up U.S. banks may be wildly unpopular, but economic recovery requires doing exactly that. You might guess from the context that a Hobson's choice isn't really a choice at all. You either take what's offered, or get nothing. A great example is the declaration by automaker Henry Ford. In his 1922 autobiography, Ford wrote that his Model T would be available in any color, quote, 'so long as it is black.' The phrase Hobson's choice goes all the way back to 17th-century England. For 50 years, Thomas Hobson ran a stable near Cambridge University. There he rented horses to students. Old Man Hobson was extremely protective of those animals. He rented them out according to a strict rotating system. The most recently ridden horses he kept at the rear of the stable. The more rested ones he kept up front. That meant that when students came to get a horse, Hobson gave them the first one in line -- that is, the most rested. He'd let them rent that horse, or none at all. Hobson and his curmudgeonly take-it-or-leave-it rule apparently made quite an impression on Cambridge students. They included the great poet John Milton, who wrote about Hobson. Meanwhile, his horses left their hoofprints in our language, in a phrase that means 'taking what's available, or else not taking anything.' Well, if you want to talk about language, I hope you'll choose to email us. Our address is words@waywordradio.org. What's a 'Hobson's Choice'? If you're facing a Hobson's choice, you don't really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what's offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice words about the origin of this term. Recently a friend emailed to ask about a curious phrase she'd run across. A newspaper columnist argued that when it comes to fixing the economy, the Obama administration faces a Hobson's choice. In other words, the writer said, shoring up U.S. banks may be wildly unpopular, but economic recovery requires doing exactly that. You might guess from the context that a Hobson's choice isn't really a choice at all. You either take what's offered, or get nothing. A great example is the declaration by automaker Henry Ford. In his 1922 autobiography, Ford wrote that his Model T would be available in any color, quote, 'so long as it is black.' The phrase Hobson's choice goes all the way back to 17th-century England. For 50 years, Thomas Hobson ran a stable near Cambridge University. There he rented horses to students. Old Man Hobson was extremely protective of those animals. He rented them out according to a strict rotating system. The most recently ridden horses he kept at the rear of the stable. The more rested ones he kept up front. That meant that when students came to get a horse, Hobson gave them the first one in line -- that is, the most rested. He'd let them rent that horse, or none at all. Hobson and his curmudgeonly take-it-or-leave-it rule apparently made quite an impression on Cambridge students. They included the great poet John Milton, who wrote about Hobson. Meanwhile, his horses left their hoofprints in our language, in a phrase that means 'taking what's available, or else not taking anything.' Well, if you want to talk about language, I hope you'll choose to email us. Our address is words@waywordradio.org. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-15,24452140 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:05:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24441444-Like-a-Duck-on-a-June-Bug-13-Apr-2009 Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced year... Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced years later. Case in point: 'Rivoli's hummingbird' is now known as the 'magnificent hummingbird.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska takes equal portions of words and numbers, mixes well, and whips up a quiz called 'Initiarithmetic.' The idea is to guess the words based on the initial letters of well-known phrases involving numbers. For example: 'There are 12 M in the Y.' Wait, that was too easy. How about this one: 'There are 2 K of P in the W. T W D the W into T K of P, and T W D.' Is there a way to get youngsters to stop overusing the word 'like'? The mother of a middle-schooler who's picked up the habit wonders where it came from and how she can stop it. Grant and Martha have suggestions, and Martha mentions this enlightening essay about teenagers and 'like' by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg <http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/like.html> 'Chicken bog' isn't a bird name, nor is it a place. It's a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller wonders about the origin of these food terms. By the way, if you like chicken bog, you'll love the annual bog-off in Loris, South Carolina. <http://www.cityofloris.com/production/index.cfm?nextpage=ChickenBog>Some folks use the old-fashioned exclamation 'Good night, nurse!' as a handy substitute for a cussword. But where'd it come from? Grant explains how this phrase became popular in the early 20th century. What's a 'Luddite'? Martha explains that this term for 'someone resistant to technological change' has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. A Texas grandmother says she's long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from 'her' grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, 'Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers do I hold up?' The caller learned that the game she loved as a child is incredibly widespread throughout the world in various forms, and dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If you're told to 'keep your eyes peeled,' you're being warned to stay alert. But--'peeled'? Where'd we get the expression to 'get someone's goat'? A caller suspects it comes from a Sicilian folk tale. But does it? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced years later. Case in point: 'Rivoli's hummingbird' is now known as the 'magnificent hummingbird.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska takes equal portions of words and numbers, mixes well, and whips up a quiz called 'Initiarithmetic.' The idea is to guess the words based on the initial letters of well-known phrases involving numbers. For example: 'There are 12 M in the Y.' Wait, that was too easy. How about this one: 'There are 2 K of P in the W. T W D the W into T K of P, and T W D.' Is there a way to get youngsters to stop overusing the word 'like'? The mother of a middle-schooler who's picked up the habit wonders where it came from and how she can stop it. Grant and Martha have suggestions, and Martha mentions this enlightening essay about teenagers and 'like' by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg <http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/like.html> 'Chicken bog' isn't a bird name, nor is it a place. It's a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller wonders about the origin of these food terms. By the way, if you like chicken bog, you'll love the annual bog-off in Loris, South Carolina. <http://www.cityofloris.com/production/index.cfm?nextpage=ChickenBog>Some folks use the old-fashioned exclamation 'Good night, nurse!' as a handy substitute for a cussword. But where'd it come from? Grant explains how this phrase became popular in the early 20th century. What's a 'Luddite'? Martha explains that this term for 'someone resistant to technological change' has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. A Texas grandmother says she's long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from 'her' grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, 'Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers do I hold up?' The caller learned that the game she loved as a child is incredibly widespread throughout the world in various forms, and dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If you're told to 'keep your eyes peeled,' you're being warned to stay alert. But--'peeled'? Where'd we get the expression to 'get someone's goat'? A caller suspects it comes from a Sicilian folk tale. But does it? -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: Unitd States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org.Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-12,24441444 Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:01:00 -0700 no podcasts http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24159715-Chicken-Scratches-and-Creaky-Voice-23-Feb-2009 Does your 'handwriting' look like chicken scratches, calligraphy, or maybe something in between? Martha and Grant discuss the 'state of penmanship,' the phenomenon linguists call 'creaky voice,' euphemisms for going to the bathroom, and the New England expression 'I 'hosey' that!' There's a new book out about the history of penmanship. It's called Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, by Kitty Burns Florey. <http://www.kittyburnsflorey.com/index.htm> If you want to claim something--say, the front seat of a car or the last piece of cake--what do you say? 'Dibs'? 'Boney'? How about 'I hosey that!'? The hosts talk about this New England expression, its possible origins, and its equivalent in other parts of the country. A caller has a hard time remembering which is correct: 'Give the book to my husband and me,' or 'Give the book to my husband and I.' Martha offers a sure-fire, quick-and-easy way to know if 'husband and I' or 'husband me' are right every time. Ac... Does your 'handwriting' look like chicken scratches, calligraphy, or maybe something in between? Martha and Grant discuss the 'state of penmanship,' the phenomenon linguists call 'creaky voice,' euphemisms for going to the bathroom, and the New England expression 'I 'hosey' that!' There's a new book out about the history of penmanship. It's called Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, by Kitty Burns Florey. <http://www.kittyburnsflorey.com/index.htm> If you want to claim something--say, the front seat of a car or the last piece of cake--what do you say? 'Dibs'? 'Boney'? How about 'I hosey that!'? The hosts talk about this New England expression, its possible origins, and its equivalent in other parts of the country. A caller has a hard time remembering which is correct: 'Give the book to my husband and me,' or 'Give the book to my husband and I.' Martha offers a sure-fire, quick-and-easy way to know if 'husband and I' or 'husband me' are right every time. According to a listener in San Diego, when a DJ plays a great set, he's said to 'rinse it.' In honor of the 44th U.S. president, Quiz Guy Greg Pliska offers a word game 'Glom-a Obama.' The object: Figure out a series of rhyming two-word phrases by guessing the word to be added to the name 'Obama.' For example, if Mr. Obama had been born in one of Japan's second-largest city, he would be '_____________ Obama.' 'He's been sick three days 'hand-running.' Huh? In some parts of the country, 'hand running' means 'in succession, consecutively.' The hosts muse about the possible origins of this phrase. One of the Olsen twins does it, some public radio hosts do it, and at least one former U.S. president does it. Grant describes the curious speech trait linguists call 'creaky voice.' A 'red letter-day' is a special occasion. Martha explains how this term came to be. A listener says she and her husband called their unborn child 'wohube.' What other 'noms de fetus' are there? In this week's installment of 'Slang This!', a member of the National Puzzlers League <http://www.puzzlers.org/> tries to separate the real slang terms from the fake ones. Try this one: Which of the following expressions really is a British synonym for the 'willies', the 'heebie jeebies' or a similar kind of 'nervous freakout'? Would that be the 'belching withers' or the 'screaming abdabs'? And which of the following terms is Australian slang for 'people from the United States'? Is it 'septics' or 'songbirds'? (The Aussies are all rolling their eyes at this obvious answer.) If you're having a conversation with someone, are you speaking with them, speaking to them, talking to them, or talking with them? A caller wonders what differences, if any, exist among all those expressions. You might have heard Brits say 'I'm going to spend a penny' when they have to visit the loo. The hosts discuss the reason for this phrase, and other euphemisms for making a trip to the toilet, such as 'I'm going to 'visit Miss White' and 'I'm going to go drop off some friends at the lake.' A caller observes that after moving to Indianapolis, he noticed that many of the locals say the names of commercial enterprises as if they're plural or possessive, even when they're not, such as calling Walmart 'Walmart's.' Grant explains the inclination to add the S sound to the names of businesses in casual speech and writing. ... Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Does your 'handwriting' look like chicken scratches, calligraphy, or maybe something in between? Martha and Grant discuss the 'state of penmanship,' the phenomenon linguists call 'creaky voice,' euphemisms for going to the bathroom, and the New England expression 'I 'hosey' that!' There's a new book out about the history of penmanship. It's called Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, by Kitty Burns Florey. <http://www.kittyburnsflorey.com/index.htm> If you want to claim something--say, the front seat of a car or the last piece of cake--what do you say? 'Dibs'? 'Boney'? How about 'I hosey that!'? The hosts talk about this New England expression, its possible origins, and its equivalent in other parts of the country. A caller has a hard time remembering which is correct: 'Give the book to my husband and me,' or 'Give the book to my husband and I.' Martha offers a sure-fire, quick-and-easy way to know if 'husband and I' or 'husband me' are right every time. According to a listener in San Diego, when a DJ plays a great set, he's said to 'rinse it.' In honor of the 44th U.S. president, Quiz Guy Greg Pliska offers a word game 'Glom-a Obama.' The object: Figure out a series of rhyming two-word phrases by guessing the word to be added to the name 'Obama.' For example, if Mr. Obama had been born in one of Japan's second-largest city, he would be '_____________ Obama.' 'He's been sick three days 'hand-running.' Huh? In some parts of the country, 'hand running' means 'in succession, consecutively.' The hosts muse about the possible origins of this phrase. One of the Olsen twins does it, some public radio hosts do it, and at least one former U.S. president does it. Grant describes the curious speech trait linguists call 'creaky voice.' A 'red letter-day' is a special occasion. Martha explains how this term came to be. A listener says she and her husband called their unborn child 'wohube.' What other 'noms de fetus' are there? In this week's installment of 'Slang This!', a member of the National Puzzlers League <http://www.puzzlers.org/> tries to separate the real slang terms from the fake ones. Try this one: Which of the following expressions really is a British synonym for the 'willies', the 'heebie jeebies' or a similar kind of 'nervous freakout'? Would that be the 'belching withers' or the 'screaming abdabs'? And which of the following terms is Australian slang for 'people from the United States'? Is it 'septics' or 'songbirds'? (The Aussies are all rolling their eyes at this obvious answer.) If you're having a conversation with someone, are you speaking with them, speaking to them, talking to them, or talking with them? A caller wonders what differences, if any, exist among all those expressions. You might have heard Brits say 'I'm going to spend a penny' when they have to visit the loo. The hosts discuss the reason for this phrase, and other euphemisms for making a trip to the toilet, such as 'I'm going to 'visit Miss White' and 'I'm going to go drop off some friends at the lake.' A caller observes that after moving to Indianapolis, he noticed that many of the locals say the names of commercial enterprises as if they're plural or possessive, even when they're not, such as calling Walmart 'Walmart's.' Grant explains the inclination to add the S sound to the names of businesses in casual speech and writing. ... Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-22,24159715 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:01:00 -0800 no podcasts