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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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Bavarian Chalet. Mushroom Basket. Moose Point. Who in the heck comes up with the names of paints, anyway? Martha and Grant ponder that mystery. They also explain why those annoying emails go by the name 'spam.' And Grant explains the difference between being 'adorbs' and 'bobo.'Bavarian Chalet. Mushroom Basket. Moose Point. Who in the heck comes up with the names of paint, anyway? Must be the same people who get paid to give names like Love Child, Sellout, and Apocalypse to shades of lipstick. Martha and Grant discuss wacky color names.Hurly-burly, helter-skelter, zigzag, shilly-shally -- the hosts dish out some claptrap about words like these, otherwise known as 'reduplications' or 'rhyming jingles.' If someone's 'naked as a needle,' just how naked are they? Why 'needle'?Grant and Martha discuss more goofy names for lipstick. Mauvelous Memories, anyone?Quiz Guy John Chaneski's latest puzzle requires players to guess the last word in a two-line verse. For example: 'Heâs seven feet tall and big as a tank, The meanest Marine that youâve ever BLANK.' (Stumped? Take a letter out of 'seven.')An Episcopal priest in Toledo worries that her sermons are cluttered with dashes. This works just fine when she's preaching, but when the same text appears on her church's website, it looks like a messy tangle of words and punctuation. The hosts discuss the differences between text written for oral delivery, and text written to be read silently.Why is that annoying stuff in your email box called 'spam? Grant has the answer. Here's the Monty Python skit that inspired it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE&feature=player_embeddedCan a first-time event ever be called 'The First Annual' Such-and-Such? Members of a Cedar Rapids group planning a social mixer disagree.Is that snazzy new car 'adorbs' or 'bobo'? Grant talks about adorbs, bobo, and a few other slang terms collected by Professor Connie Eble of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.Theories about how Latin Americans came to use the term 'gringo' as a disparaging word for foreigners. We can easily rule out the one about the song 'Green Grow the Lilacs,' but what about the rest?An insurance fraud investigator in Milwaukee wonders if he's correct to use a semicolon immediately after the word 'however.' Grant suggests that the word and the punctuation mark should do a do-si-do.Many of us learned the rule about using the preposition 'between' when talking about two items, but among when talking about more than two. In reality, though, the rule is a little more complicated.Someone who's extremely busy may be said to be 'busier than a cranberry merchant.' What is it that keeps cranberry merchants so busy, anyway?--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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/4mc8dmThe 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[This episode first aired 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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The English language has no shortage of words that mean nonsensical talk, including one that's piqued a listener's curiosity: How did flannel come to mean 'empty chatter' or 'hot air,' as in 'Don't give me any of that flannel!'?--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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[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.htmlOne 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/btaj2rIt 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.gifIs 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/b8davpThere's also an amazing list of grawlixes used in cartoons and comics from 1911 to 2008:http://www.statoids.com/comicana/grawlist.htmlGrant 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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[This episode first aired February 23, 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.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 with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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Are serial commas always necessary? An English teacher says she was surprised to learn that she and her husband, who's also an English teacher, are giving their students conflicting advice.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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[This episode first aired February 14, 2009.]Martha and Grant share a couple of favorite online sources for reading about language: Michael Quinion's World Wide Words newsletter <http://www.worldwidewords.org/> and Arnold Zwicky's blog <http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/>. Be sure to check out Zwicky's post, 'Dialect dangerous to cats' for a look at The Lion Cut <http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/dialect-dangerous-to-cats>If you're a Texan, you may be familiar with the phrases 'raise the window down' and 'help your plate.' If not, you'll find translations here.What's lurve got to do with it? A caller is puzzled by a greeting card with the phrase 'crazy cosmic lurve god.' Linguistics fans will fan themselves as Grant explains the roots of this expression with linguistic terms like the 'intrusive R' and epenthesis <http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/E0172400.html>.Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a puzzle called 'Weight Loss Program.' The object is to guess a pair of words from his clues. Remove a unit of weight from the first word in the pair, and you'll get the second word. Example: 'A Palm Beach County resort town whose name is Spanish for 'mouth of the rat,' and 'A timely benefit or blessing.' The answer weighs in at 2,000 pounds.If the 'subjunctive mood' were to disappear from English, would our language be the poorer for it? The hosts have strongly different opinions about it.Ever notice when people start to answer to a question with the words, ''Yeah, no'â'? Linguists have been studying this seemingly contradictory phrase for years. It may look like oxymoron, but it's not.'Ennead,' anyone? If you need a word for 'a group of nine things,' that one will do the trick.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: If you have chutzpah, might you also be said to 'have the stitches' to get things done, or 'have the brass' to get things done? Here's another: Which of the following is a slang term for 'daybreak'? 'Rancid butter's melt'? Or 'sparrow's fart'?The cleverly named 'Buy n Large' corporation in the movie Wall-E has a caller wondering why we say use the phrase 'by and large' to mean 'generally speaking.' It has its origins on the high seas.Does the word 'swarthy' mean 'hairy'? A man has a running dispute with his wife the English teacher, who insists it does. Is she right?Cleave, dust, and screen are all 'words that can mean the opposite of themselves.' You can cleave to a belief, meaning to 'adhere closely,' but you can also separate things by cleaving them. Words that mean the opposite of themselves go by many different names, including 'contranyms,' 'contronyms,' 'auto-antonyms,' and 'Janus words.' Lists of such words:http://people.csail.mit.edu/seth/misc/selfantonyms.htmlhttp://polysemania.blogspot.com/2007/03/janus-words.htmlhttp://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/4264Martha talks about 'enantiodromia,' which is 'the process by which something becomes its opposite,' particularly when an individual or community adopts beliefs antithetical to beliefs they held earlier.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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'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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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[This episode first aired February 7, 2009.]Are fairy tales too scary for children? A survey of parents in Britain found that more than half wouldn't read them to their children before age five. Martha and Grant discuss the grisly imagery in fairy tales, and whether they're too traumatizing for kids. Also, when did 'dog food' become a verb? And does the word butterfly come from 'flutter by'?How did serialized melodramas come to be called soap operas? The answer has to do with the suds-selling sponsors of old-time radio shows.When a theater company gives out free tickets to a performance, it's called papering the house. But what kind of 'paper' are we talking about, anyway? Our show's pun-loving Quiz Guy, Greg Pliska, whips up a word game called 'Country Kitschin'.' The challenge is to fill in the blank in a sentence with the name of a country so that the spoken sentence makes sense. Try this one: 'We'll take our time today, because you'd hate to _____________ quiz as good as this one.''Don't tump over the canoe!' The verb to tump is familiar to folks in many parts of the United States. Use it elsewhere, though, and you might get some quizzical looks. What does it mean and who uses it? The hosts tump over their reference works and answers spill out.Why do some people add a final 'th' sound to the word 'height'? At one time, that pronunciation was perfectly proper. If you work in the software industry, you may already know the term dogfooding, which means 'to use one's own product.' Grant explains how dogfood became a verb.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 impostors from a list that includes: backne, button cotton, snake check, and filter filter.A caller suspects that the word butterfly derives from a reversal of the expression 'flutter by.' But is it? Her question leads to a discussion of butterfly behavior and a handy five-letter word that means 'caterpillar poop.' That groove between your nose and upper lip? It's your philtrum, from the Greek word for 'love potion.' Martha explains.Which is correct: 'I'm reticent to do that' or 'I'm reluctant to do that?' --Do you like what you hear? Help support the program with a donation: http://waywordradio.org/donate/--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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.phpIs 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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

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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.comFor 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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=cseThis 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.htmlBlount 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.htmlFind 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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/che59sSo, 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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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.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[This episode was first aired November 22, 2008.]Feeling fankled? It's a Scots English word that means 'messed up' or 'confused.' In this week's episode, Grant and Martha also discuss a whole litter of synonyms for 'dust bunny,' a slew of different terms for the piece of playground equipment you slide on, and the proper way to refer to a baby platypus.When you were growing up, what did you call that piece of playground equipment that you climb up and then slide down? A former New Jersey resident recalls that when her family moved to Indiana, her playmates were startled when she called it a sliding board. They called it simply a slide. So is sliding board a regional term? Yes, indeed. Depending on where you grew up, you might have spent your childhood whooshing down a sliding pon, a sliding pond, or a sliding pot. Then there's the British name for it, chute, as well as Yiddish glistch, and Australian slippery dip.You know the type: Those guys whose everyday wardrobes are the fashion equivalent of oatmeal, with nothing fancier than khaki pants and knit shirts. One such fashion minimalist wonders if there's a specific terms for guys like him. He puts the question this way: 'What's the opposite of a clothes horse?' Martha and Grant try to come up with a suit-able term. 'Label-agnostic,' maybe?Quick! That stuff under your bed--what do you call it? Dust bunnies? House moss? Beggar's velvet? Ghost turds? Those fluffy little puffballs go by lots of different names. But a caller is perplexed by his mother's term for those ever-multiplying dustwads: slut's wool.Quiz Guy Johnny C--a.k.a. John Chaneski--works his magic with a new puzzle called 'Three's a Charm.' The object of the game is to figure out the one word that can be placed in front of each of three other words to form three new, understandable terms. Like this: What one word fits before the words 'surgery,' 'history,' and 'exam'? We thought 'rectal' might work, but turns out it didn't.How about the phrase 'on the ball'? A listener wonders if its origin derives from a landing maneuver on aircraft carriers. Does his theory hold water?If you're of a certain age, you may be surprised when someone asks you 'hit me up'--and even more so when it turns out he's asking you to call him on his cell phone. Grant explains how 'hit me up' began to take on a new meaning.If someone calls you a 'notorious' singer, should you be flattered or insulted? An Indiana caller says he's hearing the word notorious used in a positive way, and wonders whether this adjective be reserved for describing things in a negative way, as in 'a notorious criminal.'For this week's episode of Slang This!, we turn the tables on our other Quiz Guy, Greg Pliska. Greg has to figure out the difference between 'dusting' and 'simping,' and between 'johnny pump' and 'reverse toilet.' Those last two sound like things you definitely wouldn't want to confuse.A biology student at Stanford University has a question that's surely on the minds of many listeners: Is there's an official term for 'baby platypus'? He's heard the term 'puggle' used to denote these cute little critters, but is unsure if 'puggle' is a legitimate scientific term.Martha reports on some listeners' neologisms for the north-south equivalent of 'bicoastal.' So far, their suggestions for people who make those long, longitudinal commutes have been limited to the left coast, including: No-Cals, Yo-Cals, Bi-Vivants, and Verti-Cals. Have a better word? Tell us here.http://tinyurl.com/6ycaug'Full fathom five thy father lies...' When the Bard wrote these immortal words, he was talking about the word 'fathom' as a measure of distance. But a Chicago caller can't quite fathom the meaning of the verb 'to fathom.' The hosts help him get his arms around this term.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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What The Cluck, Part 2What does the expression egg on have to do with chickens? Nothing, actually. Martha explains why, and tells the story of how the term curate's egg came to mean 'something with both good and bad characteristics.'Last week I told you about a letter from Randy in San Diego. He's the guy who's raising three chickens in his backyard. That got him wondering about expressions in English involving chicken. For example, what about 'to egg someone on'?Randy says he gave his trio of hens three different nesting boxes. But they all insist on taking turns using the same one. Now, you have to picture this. He writes: 'Every day about 10 a.m., they each lay one egg. The hen who is laying the egg sits in the nesting box. The other two always stand near the nesting box squawking loudly until she is done. When the first hen finishes she trades places with one of the others and the whole thing happens again. They have always done this so I assume the behavior is where we get the expression to egg someone on.'Good guess, Randy. But get this: the 'egg' in 'egg on' has nothing to do with the kind you eat.To 'egg on' comes from an Old Norse verb, eggja, which means to 'goad or incite.' Eggja and 'egg on' share a common linguistic ancestor with many other sharp, pointy words, including 'edge.' In fact, in the past, the phrase 'to edge on' has been used in exactly the same way as 'egg on.'Here's another egg expression I really like. It's 'curate's egg,' and it means 'a mixed bag' -- as in 'I just read a curate's egg of a book. The plot was flimsy, and the characters were wooden, but I still couldn't put it down.' The expression 'curate's egg' goes back to a cartoon published in 1895 in the British magazine Punch: A meek curate -- that is, a clergyman -- is dining at the home of his bishop. Unfortunately, he's served a bad egg. The bishop notices that something's wrong and politely says, 'I'm afraid you've got a bad egg.' But the curate hastily replies, 'Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you...parts of it are excellent!' The joke, of course, is that if an egg is bad, it's going to be totally bad, not partly. But the curate's too timid to say so.The term curate's egg has since come to mean 'something with both good and bad characteristics.' Now, I'm egging you on: If you have a question about words, or any other aspect of language, please drop us a line. 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.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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This week, we received an email from Randy in San Diego. Randy writes: 'I recently got myself three hens for the back yard as a hobby that I thought my kids would enjoy. I highly recommend backyard chickens, by the way â theyâre better than television. During the months we have had these chickens, around I have had an opportunity to closely observe their behavior. This has me wondering about all the expressions and words we have in the U.S. related to chickens.'Great question, Randy. For starters, back in the days when most folks raised their own chickens, everybody knew that putting a fake egg in a chicken's nest would encourage her to lay more eggs. This fake egg was either wooden or ceramic. It was called a nest egg. Over time, this expression acquired the figurative meaning of 'a reserve of cash set aside.' Like those fake eggs that help get a chicken in the mood, your own nest egg of cash is supposed to help you acquire more.Of course, notice I said 'supposed to.' By the way, that reminds me of some chicken-based financial advice I once got from a fellow in eastern Kentucky. It went like this: Chicken for lunch, feathers for supper. In other words, be thrifty now, so you'll have some reserves for later. Want another example of hens nesting in the English language? In the 1920s, a Norwegian zoologist studying chicken behavior observed that the birds create strict social hierarchies. A bird's status within it determines such things as whether she can eat before everybody else, or has to wait her turn. The zoologist published his observations in scholarly article. Writing in German, he noted that hens create and enforce that hierarchy by pecking at each other. Searching for a word to describe this, he combined the German word hacken, which means 'to peck,' and ordnung, which means order. Soon after, Hackordnung was translated into English as pecking order. Of course, these days pecking order also applies human hierarchies.By the way, in case you missed it, you can hear even more about chickens -- specifically, the expression Nobody here but us chickens, which has an interesting backstory -- in this episode. http://www.waywordradio.org/days-of-wine-flights-and-mullets/Has a linguistic question ruffled your feathers lately? Email us at words@waywordradio.org.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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Recently The New Yorker magazine ran a profile of the writer David Foster Wallace, who died last year at the age of 46. The article included a line that I think Foster himself might have appreciated. It went like this: 'He was known for endlessly fracturing narratives and for stem-winding sentences adorned with footnotes that were themselves stem-winders.' So what's a stem-winder?Stem-winder goes back to the mid-19th century. It refers to an invention that was as nifty and state-of-the-art then as the coolest iPhone apps today. Think back to the days of pocket watches. In the really old days, people had to wind a watch the same way they wound clocks. They used a little key. Not only was that a hassle, those keys were easy to lose.   In the 1840s, a watchmaker in Switzerland perfected a different way to keep a watch running. He put a knob on a tiny metal stem, and attached it permanently to the spring mechanism. People lucky enough to own these newfangled timepieces could throw away their key, and wind their watches whenever they wanted.These fancy new stem-winders were some of the coolest gadgets around -- so cool that by the late 1800s, people were applying the term stem-winder to mean anything excellent or first-rate. Over time, stem-winder also came to apply specifically to a rousing, impassioned speech or to a great orator. Perhaps that's because a stirring speech or an energetic speaker could get folks in a crowd wound up, just like a watch.Dictionaries apparently haven't caught up with the fact that these days, many people use 'stem-winder' in a different sense. Occasionally you'll hear the term applied to a long-winded, boring speech -- one so long and boring you're tempted to look down at your watch and wind it. Or you would if it didn't run on batteries. And I have to wonder whether the notion of 'winding,' in the sense of something 'circuitous,' also influenced the magazine writer's choice of 'stem-winding' to describe those long, stirring sentences of David Foster Wallace.By the way, if you're a word lover, you'll want to check out that article in New Yorker. You can read it here. You can also read an excerpt of the last novel Wallace ever wrote, which will be published posthumously in 2010.http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/09/090309fa_fact_max?currentPage=allhttp://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2009/03/09/090309fi_fiction_wallaceWhat word or phrase has caught your eye lately? We'd love to hear about it. Send any stem-winders you find to words@waywordradio.org. --Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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Martha explains how experiments with dead frogs and live wires led to the invention of the battery, and inspired a couple of familiar English words.I had to change the batteries in my flashlight the other day, and that makes think, as it always does, of Luigi Galvani. No, really, it does. Let me explain: Galvani was an 18th-century Italian physician and physicist whose experiments accidentally paved the way for modern batteries.The focus of his research? Galvani experimented with dead frogs and live wires. In 1791, he published a paper describing how he'd touched a dead frog's leg with one wire, and touched another wire to both the frog and the first wire. When the second wire made contact, the lifeless body jerked. Galvani believed these convulsions were the result of 'animal electricity,' a mysterious substance secreted by the body. What Galvani failed to grasp was that by touching wires made of two different metals to the frog -- and to each other -- he'd simply created a closed circuit.At the time, Galvani's report was nothing short of astonishing. As one of his contemporaries wrote in a letter: 'Now here the experiments are also repeated in ladies' salons, and they furnish a good spectacle to all.' A generation later, Mary Shelley would write her novel Frankenstein, and specifically credit Galvani's experiments as an inspiration. But his work also inspired further research by another Italian scientist, one who didn't buy the idea of 'animal electricity.' His name was Alessandro Volta. He suspected that the frog's body didn't secrete electricity, it conducted it. Soon Volta was stacking pieces of zinc and silver and, instead of animal tissue, cardboard soaked in brine. The electrifying result was the first 'voltaic pile,' forerunner of the batteries we use today. As you may have guessed, Volta's name lives on in our word for that unit of electrical measurement, the volt. Despite his scientific mistake, Galvani achieved a measure of linguistic immortality as well. Today you'll find his name inside a word that means to 'jolt' or 'jump-start': galvanize.Incidentally, if you're having a hard time picturing Galvani's many experiments, there are lots of illustrations on the Web, including here and here.http://galvanisfrog.com/Home.phphttp://www.batteryfacts.co.uk/BatteryHistory/Galvani.html --Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: U.S. toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, London +44 20 7193 2113, Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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[Portions of this episode were first broadcast November 1, 2008.]Apple core, Baltimore! Ever play the rhyming game where you eat an apple, then shout 'apple core,' and then the first person to respond 'Baltimore!' gets to decide where (more specifically, at whom) the core gets tossed. This old-fashioned game is hours of fun for the whole family! We promise.'A fish stinks from the head down.' When an Indianapolis woman is quoted saying that, she's accused of calling someone a stinky fish. She says she wasn't speaking literally, insisting that this is a turn of phrase that means 'corruption in an organization starts at the top.' Who's right?Dude, how'd we ever start using the word 'dude'? The Big Grantbowski traces the word's origin--it's over 125 years old. Here's a poem about dandy dudes from 1883 <http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/dude/>, the year the word zoomed into common use. Ben Zimmer at Visual Thesaurus also has a very good summary of what is known about 'dude.' <http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1534/>Quiz Guy John Chaneski drops by with a puzzle involving overlapping words. He calls it, of course, 'Overlap-Plied Linguistics.'If you're hung over, and someone offers you a little 'hair of the dog,' you can rest assured you're not being offered a sip of something with real dog hair in it. But was that always the case? Grant has the answer, and Martha offers a word once proposed as a medical term for this crapulent <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=crapulent&r=66> condition: veisalgia.A new resident of Pittsburgh is startled by some of the dialect there, like 'yinz' instead of 'you' for the second person plural, and nebby for 'nosy.' For a wonderful site about the dialect of that area, check out Pittsburgh Speech and Society <http://english.cmu.edu/pittsburghspeech/index.html>.If someone says he 'finna go,' he means he's leaving. But finna? Grant has the final word about finna.Good news if you've wondered about a word for recognizable images composed of random visual stimuli&#8212;that image of Elvis in your grilled-cheese sandwich, for example. It's pareidolia <http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/audio_pareidolia/>. In this week's 'Slang This!,' a member of the National Puzzlers' League from Boston tries to guess the meaning of four possible slang terms, including labanza, woefits, prosciutto, and moose-tanned.At Murray's Cheese <http://www.murrayscheese.com/> in Grand Central Station, the workers who sell cheese are called 'cheesemongers.' The store's opening up a new section to sell cold cuts, and workers there are looking for more appetizing term than 'meatmonger.' (Meat-R-Maids? Never mind.) Martha and Grant try to help.At sports events in North America, we enthusiastically root for the home team, right? But a woman from Kenosha, Wisconsin, says an Aussie told her that they most assuredly don't do that Down Under. There, he tells her, rooting means 'having sex.' Is he pulling her leg, she wonders?--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: U.S. toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, London +44 20 7193 2113, Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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Time for another linguistic mystery. Where would you be if you decided to go twacking around duckish, and then you came home and wrote about it in a scribbler? Any idea? If you're going twacking around duckish, you're likely in Newfoundland. The type of English spoken there may be the most distinctive collection of dialects in Canada. Some of it sounds a lot like Irish-accented English. Other dialects in Newfoundland have echoes of the speech of immigrants from the West Country of England.Visit Newfoundland, and you'll be greeted by some colorful vocabulary. The verb to twack means 'to go shopping and ask about the prices, but then not buy anything.' I guess that's the Newfie version of 'window shopping.' Duckish means 'dusk' or 'twilight.' And a scribbler is a 'notebook.'  If you want to hear some terrific examples of Newfoundland English, check out the International Dialects of English Archive online.http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/canada/newfoundland/newfoundland.htmHere's another online treat for word lovers: the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Start rummaging around on this lovely site, and you'll discover a yaffle â that means an armful â of great words, like dumbledore. That's right, spelled just like the Harry Potter character. In Newfoundland, a dumbledore is a 'bumblebee.'We'd love to know what regionalisms have caught your ear lately. Send them along to words@waywordradio.org. As they say in Newfoundland, we'd be wonderful happy to hear from you.--Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: U.S. toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, London +44 20 7193 2113, Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: 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.

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Time for another linguistic mystery. In what part of the country would you be likely to hear older folks using the following phrases? 'He sure was mommucking his little brother.'And: 'Why, those kids used to play meehonkey every afternoon!' And: 'Ohhhhhhh, I was quamished in the stomach.' Give up? The place you're likely to hear the words mommucking, meehonkey, and quamished is called Ocracoke. It's just off the North Carolina coast -- one of the Outer Banks barrier islands.Settled by the British in the early 1700s, Ocracoke's small, relatively isolated community developed its own distinctive dialect. One of the dialect's most striking features is its pronunciation. In the so-called 'Ocracoke brogue,' the expression 'high tide' sounds more like 'hoi toid.' On the island, you'll also hear some words that you won't find in many other places. Mommuck means to 'harass' or 'bother.' Quamish means 'queasy.' And old-timers on Ocracoke remember playing the island's special version of hide-and-seek. They call it meehonkey. You can hear some audio clips of Outer Banks English here, from the North Carolina State's Language and Linguistics Program.http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/english/linguistics/code/Research%20Sites/ocracoke_audio.htmAnd for a great introduction to the topic, check out Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks, by linguists Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes. http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/english/linguistics/code/Research%20Sites/ocracoke/hoitoidebook.htmAnd here you'll find video of O'cokers, as they call themselves, in conversation.http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4811What regional expressions have caught your ear lately? Email us at words@waywordradio.org.  ---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.

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Time to solve another linguistic mystery. You're in a restaurant. You overhear a conversation at the next table. The woman says to her friend, 'You know, I just love the taste of joe floggers.' And her dining companion replies enthusiastically, 'Joe floggers? Oh, so don't I!'Okay, so where would you likely to hear people talk about the joys of 'joe floggers'? Well, chances are you'd probably be in...New England, most likely coastal Massachusetts or Maine. There 'joe flogger' is a name denoting a variety of culinary treats. It may be a pancake stuffed with plums, or it may be a kind of doughnut. They're sometimes known as 'joe froggers' or simply 'frogs.' And, as is typical with many food names, 'joe frogger' also does double duty as the term for yet another confection: a large, molasses-flavored cookie.So how about the enthusiastic expression 'So don't I!'? This odd construction actually expresses agreement, not disagreement. For example, someone might say, 'I like ice cream,' to which you'd reply, 'So don't I!' meaning 'I do, too!'It's been called 'the Massachusetts negative-positive.' But the truth is that 'So don't I!' is found in pockets throughout New England. And its origins remain a puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, I'll be back with another linguistic mystery next time. In the meantime, I'd love to know what regional expressions jumped out at you the first time you heard them. Email me at words@waywordradio.org. Want to try baking your own batch of joe froggers? Here's a recipe. http://www.cakespy.com/2008/08/not-joe-mammas-cookies-legend-of-joe.htmlLike what you hear? If you'd like to support 'A Way with Words,' you can make a contribution here. http://www.waywordradio.org/donate/--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.

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[This episode first aired October 25, 2008.]Here's a riddle: 'Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.' Think you know the answer? You'll find it in this week's episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other old-fashioned riddles. Also: how did the phrase 'going commando' come to be slang for 'going without underwear'? And which word is correct: 'orient' or 'orientate'?To go commando means to 'go without underwear.' But why 'commando'? An Indiana listener says the term came up in conversation with her husband after one of them had a near-wardrobe malfunction. She mercifully leaves the rest to the imagination, but still wonders about the term. Grant says its popularity zoomed after a popular episode of 'Friends.' Watch the clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0JgkuNBuWIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q--6wtCPHg8&feature=relatedA woman who grew up in India says she was baffled when someone with aching feet complained, 'My dogs are barking.' The answer may lie in a jocular rhyme.Martha is baffled when Grant shares another riddle involving 'four stiff standers, two lookers, and one switchbox.' Can you figure out the answer?To-ga! To-ga! To-ga! John Chaneski's latest quiz, 'Classics Class,' has the hosts rooting around for the ancient Greek and Latin origins of English words.Those who commute coast-to-coast are 'bicoastals.' But what do you call someone who commutes along the same coast--between, say, Miami and New York? A woman who now travels regularly between Northern and Southern California to visit the grandchildren wonders what to call herself. She's already considered and nixed 'bipolar.' The hosts try to come up with other suggestions.Remember when no one ever thought about adding the suffix '-gate' to a word to indicate a scandal? Now there's Troopergate, Travelgate, Monicagate, Cameragate, Sandwichgate, and of course, the mother of all gates, Watergate. Grant talks about the flood of '-gate' words inspired by that scandal from the 1970s.An Atlanta listener seeks clarification about the difference between may and might? Might 'may' be used to express a possibility, or is 'might' a better choice?In this week's slang quiz, a member of the National Puzzlers' League http://www.puzzlers.org from Somerville, Massachusetts tries to guess the meaning of bottle room and shred, as used in the context of snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing.Do you cringe when you hear the words orientate and disorientate? A copy editor in Waldoboro, Maine does. She'd rather hear 'orient' and 'disorient.' The hosts weigh in on that extra syllable.They were the last words Abraham Lincoln heard before John Wilkes Booth assassinated him: 'Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside-out, old gal--you sockdologizing old man-trap!' Booth knew that this line from the play 'Our American Cousin' would get a big laugh, so he chose that moment to pull the trigger. A Wisconsin listener wants to know the meaning and origin of that curious word, 'sockdologizing.' If you want to read the whole play, which has some silly wordplay and a dopey riddle or two, it's online at Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3158Does one take preventive or preventative measures? A caller in Ocean Beach, California who just graduated from an exercise science program wants to know which of these terms describes what she's been studying.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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Where in the world would you be likely to find sculch in your dooryard, or ask for just a dite of cream in your coffee? Martha has the answers in this minicast about some distinctive regional terms....Here's a linguistic puzzle for you. Suppose you stopped by my home and said, 'Martha, did you know there's sculch in your dooryard?' That's right, sculch in my dooryard.So, in what part of the country would you expect to hear these terms?The answer? We'd probably be in New England, and most likely Maine. There the word 'sculch' means 'trash.' And in much of New England and part of New York State, you'll often hear people refer to the yard near a house as the dooryard.Over the next few weeks, I want to talk with you about regional expressions like these. Terms that will be perfectly familiar to those who live in one part of the country, but mystifying -- or even jarring -- to those living somewhere else. Or, as they say in Maine, to someone who is 'from away'-- that is, anywhere other than their state. Another word you'll find mainly in Maine is dite. It's spelled either D-I-T-E or D-I-G-H-T. In Maine, the word 'dite' means 'just a little, a smidge.' As in, 'Oh, give me just a dite of butter,' or 'Move over just a dite, will you?' It appears the term 'dite' comes from a Scots word that means the same thing, and derives in turn, from a Dutch word that means 'a small coin.'Well, that's just a dite about some of the words you'll hear in New England, especially in Maine. We want to know what regional expressions you found jarring the first time you heard them. Email us at words@waywordradio.org. By the way, if you want to hear some recordings of the distinctive Maine accent, check these out. http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/maine/maine.htm Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean out the sculch someone left in my dooryard. ...Like what you hear? If you'd like to support 'A Way with Words,' you can make a contribution: http://www.waywordradio.org/donate/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.

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Listen: Can you guess what this is?'Huup huup huup . . . huup huup huup . . . huup huup huup.'No, it's not Morse code. Not a baby chimp. It's the sound of the hoopoe.Funny-looking bird, the hoopoe. It has a pink head, zebra-striped wings, and what looks like a great party hat of pink feathers tipped in black and white.The hoopoe's flight is somewhat erratic, more like a butterfly than a bird. One other odd thing about hoopoes: their nests are extremely stinky. Hoopoes line their nests with their own droppings, all the better to keep predators away.Even the bird's name looks weird: It's spelled h-o-o-p-o-e.The hoopoe is found in much of Europe, Africa, and Asia. In many cultures, this bird is highly regarded. The Biblical King Solomon is said to have taken advice from a hoopoe. In fact, just last year Israelis voted the hoopoe their country's national bird.In other cultures, though, the hoopoe isn't so well-regarded. In Greek myth, this otherworldly bird was a symbol of death. And in France, the hoopoe has long been considered stupid. Maybe that's because of its colorful, clownish appearance, although I'm sure the nest thing didn't help.So, why am I telling you all this?In ancient Rome, this bird that went 'huup huup huup' was called the upupa. Logical enough.In Middle French, this name evolved into something that sounded more like uppe. It's likely that from this word for the bird arose the modern French 'dupe,' a shortening of 'tete d'uppe' or 'hoopoe head.' In French, a 'dupe' is a 'fool or simpleton.'As you may have guessed, it's this French word dupe from which we get the English word 'dupe' â someone who's been played for a fool.We're hearing this word more and more, as the sordid details of Wall Street scandals emerge. And each time I come across that word 'dupe,' I can't help but hear the distant call of the hoopoe.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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[This episode first aired October 18, 2008.]This week on A Way with Words: Fess up: Do you have a pet name for your car? How about your computer? Martha and Grant discuss the urge to give nicknames to inanimate objects in our lives. Also, why do we speak of 'vetting' a political candidate? And what in the world is a 'zoo plane'?Fess up, now: Do you have a pet name for your car? Or maybe you spend so much quality time with your computer that you've given it a particularly affectionate moniker? What is it about inanimate objects--particularly technological gadgets--that inspires us to give them special nicknames? Martha raises these questions, and Grant reveals the name he selected for his own computer. 'If I had my druthers...' A former Texan says the youngsters he works with in his adopted home of Ohio don't understand this expression meaning 'If I had my way.' He wants to know its origin. If you still can't get enough of the word 'druthers,' this video should cure you pretty quickly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EToqIxHfXoHow can I improve my vocabulary, and remember the words I do learn? When a San Diego listener asks that question, Grant and Martha share some practical tips on how to boost your vocabulary. For starters, forget the flash cards, and reach for a library card instead.We hear a lot about vetting candidates for political office, but where'd we get the verb 'to vet'? Does vetting have to do with 'veterans,' or 'veterinarians,' or something else entirely? John Chaneski's latest puzzle is 'The Yo-Yo Quiz,' and it's not about famous cellists or first person pronouns in Spanish. The object is to guess the missing word that can be paired with either 'up' or 'down' to mean different things. For example, try to guess the one-word answer here: 'With 'up,' it means 'to laugh uncontrollably.' With 'down' it means 'to become more strict about an issue.''If someone is poor as Joe's turkey, he's impoverished. A caller raised in the South has heard that expression all his life, but wonders: Who was Joe, and what did his turkey have to do with anything? Things get clearer when Martha explains the original turkey's owner wasn't Joe, but the Biblical Job.Some native Spanish speakers prefer the term Hispanic, while others adamantly insist on Latino. The hosts discuss the origins of these words, and a bit about the controversy over their use.A San Diego history buff is curious about the word stingaree. This slang term once referred to part of the city's red-light district, and remains the name of a stylish downtown restaurant and nightclub in the city's Gaslamp district. Grant illuminates the risque origin of this unusual word.This week's 'Slang This!' contestant from the National Puzzlers' League http://puzzlers.org tries to decipher the difference between zoo planes and zipper clippers. She also puzzles over a sentence in which the words brindle and verse used in surprising ways.Ever had a friend who never can quite say 'goodbye'? Say you're finishing up an email conversation, you both say like 'so long,' but then up pops another email from him, asking just one more question or mentioning one more bit of news. A caller from Hillsboro, Oregon wants to know if there's a word for that kind of lingering, drawn-out goodbye. Martha calls it 'doorknob hanging,' but Grant has a more technical term used by linguists.Is the expression beck and call, or beckon call? And what's a beck, anyway?Hegemony is defined as 'preponderant influence or authority over others.' But how do you pronounce it? Heh-JEH-mun-ee? HEDJ-uh-moh-nee? Heh-GEM-un-ee? A caller's unsure which pronunciation is preferred. Grant gives Martha a pop quiz about the meaning of the English word opifex. And no, it's not a hoofed African quadruped.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about words that came from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.Gas prices have been all over the place, but worse still than high gas-prices are accidents caused by DWT, which is short for 'driving while texting.'Legislation and rules were considered in municipalities across the country to stop people from sending text messages on their phones while driving, though few bills seem to have passed.Thanks to high fuel prices, the word gas-sipper made a comeback in 2008. It's the opposite of a gas-guzzler. If a car sips gas, it consume less.Another approach to conserving fuel would be hypermiling. This word, created in 2004, was Oxford University Press's word of the year for 2008.It means to take extraordinary measures to conserve fuel, things like turning off the engine when going down hills, avoiding the brakes, and drafting behind larger vehicles. Drafting means riding up close where wind resistance is less.This approach to fuel economy is stock in trade for the carborexic. That's a person who is energy anorexic, meaning they do things like never use air-conditioning, turn off their refrigerators when they go a way for the weekend, and fill the few lights they use with low wattage bulbs.And that's it for our word-of-the-year minicasts. You can find more words of the year at the web site of the American Dialect Society, at americandialect.org.Also, on our web site at waywordradio.org, you can find more minicasts, news about language current events, and full episodes of our call-in show, all at no cost to you.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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[This episode first aired May 10, 2008.]We all misspeak from time to time, but how about when we mangle words on purpose? Do you ever say 'fambly' instead of family, 'perazackly' for exactly, or 'coinkydink' for coincidence? When Grant recently wrote a newspaper column about saying things wrong on purpose, the response was enormous. Why is it that many people find such wordplay hard to resist? We consider this question and share their own favorite examples.A Pennsylvania minister is curious about a phrase her family uses: 'by way of Robin Hood's barn' or 'around Robin Hood's barn,' meaning a long, circuitous route. How do you pronounce the architectural term 'beaux arts'? (Yep, Grant accidentally left of the final S when he spelled the term on the air.) Is it pronounced 'boh-ZART,' 'boh-ART,' 'boh-ZAR,' or 'boh-ZARTS'? We settle a dispute between a New Jersey woman and her nephew. Martha shares the winners of a contest for Best Book Titles of the Year. Or would that be Oddest Book Titles of the Year?Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle in which we remove the first letter of a phrase to yield another with a different meaning. Try one: originally it was a boxing film starring Robert De Niro. Now it describes a head of cattle that's perhaps getting on in years.A Wisconsin woman is trying to remember 'a term for paths in the grass created by pedestrians taking shortcuts.' Grant has an answer for her, straight from the jargon of urban planning professionals. The caller also wants 'recommendations for a good thesaurus.' The hosts' response may surprise you.A caller is curious about a slang term she hears from her friends in the military. The word is 'Jody,' and it means someone who steals a soldier's girlfriend. Grant tells the colorful story behind this bit of military slang, as well as the songs it inspired. Here's a sample of Jody calls from the Vietnam war and from the Korean War.Grant and Martha share more intentional mispronunciations, including 'tar-ZHAY' instead of Target.This week's Slang This! contestant is not just any word nerd. She's Dorothea Gillim, creator of the animated PBS series WordGirl. Dorothea tries to guess the meaning of the odd terms 'pelican crossing' and 'zanjero.' The new season of WordGirl starts Monday, May 26th, and airs Mondays through Fridays.What is 'janky'? A Chattanooga caller uses it describe something inferior or bad. A Wisconsin man wonders about the use of the term 'big box store' to denote the stores of big retail chains like Wal-Mart. Is 'big box' a reference to the size and shape of the stores, or the fact that they sell huge appliances that come in, well, big boxes? Here's a silly song from JibJab about bix box stores.A Pittsburgh man is bothered by people who would say someone wrote an 'outraged letter.' Can a letter really be angry and indignant or is it really the writer who's upset? Martha answers his question and seizes the opportunity to talk about the four-syllable word, 'hypallage.'...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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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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.Just in time for the holidays, Quiz Guy John Chaneski arrives with bagful of puzzling questions about Christmas songs. He invites us to take a familiar holiday tune, change one letter, and guess the name of the new song from his clue. Try this one: 'This song tells how animals in the wild--like the lion, wildebeest, giraffe, and elephant--ring in the holidays.' Hint: Pay attention to that word 'ring.'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 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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and--how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the 2008 presidential campaign?--lipstick on a pig. Some new and not-so-new terms leapt onto the national stage during Gov. Sarah Palin's run for the vice presidency. Grant discusses these expressions as our 'Word of the Year 2008' series continues.We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about the acronym PUMA.When Sarah Palin took the stage this year as a surprise pick for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, the election changed. Her hugely popular public appearances, her good looks, and her role as a Washington outsider served as catalysts for new words and catchphrases.For example, she described herself as a hockey mom.It's a decades-old term for someone who spends a great deal of time passionately aiding her children's interest in the sport that uses a puck and a stick.The only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull, she was fond of saying, is lipstick.So, when Barack Obama said in a speech, 'You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig,' many people assumed he meant to call Palin a pig. The brouhaha about that was called Lipstick-gate by some press and commentators.That's not the only term that Caribou Barbie, as some people have called her, brought to the fore. Her constant use of the term maverick led writer and actor Tina Fey to use the word mavericky in her Saturday Night Live impressions of Palin. It simply means 'having maverick-like qualities.'Also, through interviews and background news stories, the other 49 states learned that Alaskans call snowmobiles snow machines, though there's nothing new about that, and that they often refer to the country beyond Alaska as Outside.That's all about Sarah Palin-inspired words of the year. Next week we'll talk about Olympic-related words of the year.----------You can support this program by making a donation at http://www.waywordradio.org/donate/. Thank you!--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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The death of Martha's favorite cat Typo prompts her to reminisce about him, and about one of her favorite ailurophilic words, chatoyant.My cat Typo was a gray tabby. Greenish-gold eyes, always getting into trouble. In fact, I'm sure that during his 17 years, he used up far more than 9 lives. As a kitten, he once jumped head first into a bathtub filled with water. (All I'm going to say about that is 'ouch.') Staying indoors left him indignant. So I tried to train him to walk on a leash. That didn't go so well either. He broke free, skittered all the way up a huge tree -- and nearly hung himself.  Thank goodness my neighbors had an extra-long extension ladder. Typo earned his name the first day we got him: He walked right across the top row of my keyboard, and typed '66666.' This year, Typo died peacefully. I'll miss the way he used to butt his head up against mine, how he squinted whenever he was happy. You know what else I'll miss? Sometimes, at dawn or at dusk, I'd walk into a room and I'd catch the sudden glow of his eyes.You know what I'm talking about? That iridescent shimmer? There's a great word to describe that. It's 'chatoyant.' It means 'having a changeable, iridescent luster, like a cat's eyes.' You might describe a 'chatoyant gem,' for example. Or a 'chatoyant silk dress.' I once read a poem that included the phrase 'a silence chatoyant.'Where'd we get such an odd-sounding word? If you speak French, you'll see the word for cat curled up inside this word. Chatoyant is from French 'chatoyer,' literally ' to shimmer like a cat's eyes.' Speaking of the word 'tabby,' did you know its linguistic roots go all the way back to a suburb of Baghdad? Back in the 17th century, a kind of silk cloth with streaked markings was produced in the part of Baghdad known as al-'Attibya. The cloth took its Arabic name from the name of the place where it was made. A version of this word passed into Medieval Latin, French, and ultimately into English, and soon came to be applied not just to 'striped silk taffeta' but the cats who resemble it.

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We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about "ground game."Another political term that we crossed paths with was PUMA. PUMA is an acronym for Party Unity My Ass, which began as a Facebook group.Members of that group were Democrats who were disaffected after Hillary Clinton failed to secure a sufficient number of delegates to win the Democratic nomination. Some of these disaffected Democrats formed groups and committees in order to try to bring the matter to a head-to-head smackdown vote at the national convention.Other PUMAs, as they call themselves, switched allegiances completely and came out in favor of Republican candidate John McCain.The PUMA umbrella name was widely embraced by the Republicans and was even seen as a false front for true Republicans masquerading as ex-Democrats in order to lure fence-sitting Clinton supporters over to McCain.As the PUMA movement grew--its true size is not really known--the acronym was revisited and it began to be said that it stood for the much more politer Party Unity Means Action.The PUMA organization became increasingly irrelevant when Hillary Clinton acknowledged Barack Obama would be the party's nominee. We may have to wait another four years to see if the term is revived.That's all about "PUMA." Next week we'll talk about the "hockey mom."--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008.  Being an election year, it generated a huge amount of political language. One expression that was not new, but which certainly seems to have exploded in use, was 'ground game.'Ground game is a political term that refers to the door-to-door, one-on-one tactics used in the presidential campaigns. The victory of the Obama campaign, in particular, has been widely credited to its voter registration drives, its organized efforts to sway undecided or independent voters, its email lists, and its repeated reminders of when and where to vote. Ground game has its roots in sports.In football, playing a ground game is about not kicking or passing, but pushing the ball step by step toward the goal with scrimmaging. It's a slog to the end zone, but it avoids investing too much hope on a single play. In martial arts, a ground game is the kind of fighting that happens on the mat or floor, as opposed to the kicking and punching that happens when standing up. It puts the combatants face-to-face. This, too, is a tough slog toward victory, though perhaps a more sure one as it does not rely on a miraculous kick or punch.That's all about 'ground game.' Next week we'll talk about the acronym 'PUMA.'--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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[This episode first aired September 20, 2008.]Here's a bit of political slang now making the rounds: sleepover. No, we're not talking about another pol caught with his pants down. We're talking about spending the night with, well, a voting machine. In this week's episode, we examine this and other examples of political language.You call the repairman to fix a balky garage door, but when he gets there, it inexplicably works. You summon a plumber, only to find that when he arrives, your toilet's no longer leaking--and you're out $150. Or you discover that somewhere between your home and the doctor's office, your kid's sore throat miraculously healed. A caller in Traverse City, Michigan, is tearing her hair out over this phenomenon, which she calls "phixophobia." But, she asks, might there be an even better word for the way inanimate objects seem to conspire against us? We think so: resistentialism.Great Scott! You've heard the expression. But who was Scott and why was he so great? Or was he an impressive Scotsman? Martha and Grant can't say for sure, although the evidence points toward a Civil War soldier who happened to go by that name. Our hosts bandy about some more political slang terms and explain their meaning and origin. Or did you already know the difference between a moonbat and a wingnut?Quiz Guy John Chaneski strikes up the band, begins the beguine, and treats Martha and Grant to musical quiz. Warning: Songs may be sung. Not to worry, though--all three have promised to keep their day jobs.If someone handed you something and told you to stick it in your jockey box, where would you put it? A Baltimore caller who grew up in Utah says when he used this term on a road trip with a friend, his pal was flummoxed. Is jockey box an expression peculiar to one part of the country?Is that oh-so-handy sticky stuff called "duct tape" or "duck tape"? An Emmy-nominated filmmaker is wondering, specifically because he has to instruct narrators to be careful to avoid running together a T sound at the end of a word with the T sound at the beginning of a word. And that has him further wondering if such elision of consonants has created other terms. We offer him an answer and a glass of ice tea. Or would that be iced tea?It's Obamarama time! We discuss the growing number of plays on the name of the Democratic presidential candidate.A North Carolina pediatrician is this week's contestant for an animal-themed version of our slang quiz. He tries to figure out the meaning of dead cat bounce and pigeon pair.A caller's question about the word wonky, in the sense of askew, leads to a broader question: What makes a word slang, anyway? Why do we say something is jet black? Does it have to do with the color of a 747's exhaust? Or skid marks on the runway? Or something else entirely? We provide a color with a mineralogical answer.A listener phones with his pet restaurant peeve: When your waiter ask, "Are you working on that?" Martha and Grant agree and pile on with gusto.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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We kick off our series on contenders for 2008's "Word of the Year" with a look at "nuke the fridge."The American Dialect Society will hold the 19th annual "Word of the Year" vote in January. It's the granddaddy of all word of the year votes--the longest running, the most academic, and the most fun.And as we approach January 9th in San Francisco, we'll be talking here, in these minicasts, about some of the likeliest candidates.One very odd one that caught our eye was "nuke the fridge."Putting it politely, it means to exhaust the possibilities or merits of a movie franchise. Putting it negatively, it means to destroy a movie franchise through the hubris and arrogance of a successful producer or director. The term was coined based upon a scene in the latest Indiana Jones movie, in which the hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. "Nuke the fridge" is patterned after "jump the shark," which was coined a few years ago to refer to anything that had peaked in popularity or quality and was now on a downward slide. Jumping the shark referred to an episode on the sitcom Happy Days in which Fanzine water-skied over a shark, a moment thought by Happy Days aficionados (there are such things!) to be the surest sign of the show's decline.That's all about "nuke the fridge." Next time we'll talk about "ground game."--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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It's that time again, when people start thinking about a 'new or resurgent word or phrase that best captures the spirit of the past year.' And what a year! We heard the words 'bailout' and 'lipstick' more times than we'd ever dreamed, and saw also the rise of invented words like 'staycation' and 'recessionista.' What are your nominations for 2008's Word of the Year?'Do English-speaking foreigners understand you better if you speak English with a foreign accent?' A Californian says that on a recent visit to Armenia, he discovered the locals had an easier time if he spoke English with an Armenian accent. Is this okay or could it be seen as condescending?'Buckaroo' is an English word adapted from the Spanish word <i>vaquero</i>, meaning 'cowboy.' Is there a specific term for the linguistic process whereby such words are adapted into English?Martha nominates another Word of the Year candidate: 'Joe the,' as in 'Joe the Plumber,' and subsequent variations on the 'X the Y' formula arising from a certain drain-fixer's quarter-hour of fame.Quiz Guy John Chaneski stops by with a quiz about superlatives. Naturally, his name for the quiz is 'Best. Puzzle. Ever.'Why do we say someone's 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed'? Your chipper, chattering hosts are ready with the 'sciurine' answer. 'http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sciurine&r=66An Indiana woman shudders every time anyone uses the expression 'comprised of.' She wants to know if she's right that it's bad grammar, and more important, is she right to be a stickler about it?Martha and Grant discuss some other Word of the Year candidates, including 'hockey mom' and 'hypermiling.'The term 'Chinese fire drill' can mean either a 'state of confusion' or the adoloscent ritual involving a red light and a carful of rowdy teenagers. But a caller who overheard the expression at work worries that expression might be racist.This week's slang quiz challenges a Seattle video game designer to pick out the correct slang terms from a mishmash of possible answers, including 'hammantaschen,' 'party party,' 'play pattycake,' and 'get off.'In 2008, is using the term 'jive turkey' politically incorrect, or just a little dorky-sounding? A Las Vegas schoolteacher jokingly used it with her students, then had second thoughts. Grant sets her mind at ease.It's raining, it's pouring, but the sun is still shining. Quick--what do you call that? Some folks refer to it a 'sunshower,' and others call it a 'monkey's wedding.' But a woman says her Southern-born mother used a much more unnerving expression: 'The devil's beating his wife.' Martha and Grant discuss the possible origins of this expression and its variants, like 'The devil is beating his wife and the angels are crying.' Around the world, this meteorological phenomenon goes by an astonishing range of names. In Lithuanian, the name translates as 'orphan's tears.' In Korean, 'a tiger is getting married.' Here's a list of many more, collected a few years ago by linguist Bert Vaux: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/9/9-1795.htmlWhich of the following three factors has the 'biggest influence on a person's accent'? Is it your geographic location, your family, or the media?--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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It's a warm day in late autumn. You're out for a stroll in the country. If the air is still, and the sun is at just the right angle, you may see the glint of spider threads floating lazily in the air. Particularly at this time of year, some tiny spiders use an odd way to travel: They shoot out threads of their own silk, and then hitch a ride on the breeze. Entomologists call this technique 'ballooning.' Walt Whitman described it in a poem, writing of a 'noiseless patient spider' launching forth 'filament, filament, filament, out of itself. / Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them....'And the word for these silky threads? 'gossamer.' It's a beautiful word, gossamer--almost sounds like itself, doesn't it? This term's meaning has come to extend to anything 'flimsy, insubstantial, or gauzy.' .' Cole Porter sang of 'a trip to the moon on gossamer wings.' And Charlotte Bronte wrote of 'a gossamer happiness hanging in the air.'So how did spider silk ever get the name 'gossamer'?It seems the spider's filaments take their name from an old word for late autumn. In this country, that period is often called 'Indian Summer.' But in Britain, the same period was long known as 'St. Martin's summer,' a reference to Martin's feast day, November 11. Centuries ago, though, speakers of Middle English referred to this period as 'gosesomer'--a name that means 'goose summer.'Why the goose in goose summer? That's where things get a little hazy. The most likely explanation is that early November traditionally was the time when people feasted on fattened geese. In fact, an old German word for November literally translates as 'geese month.'The name for this warm period, goosesummer, was later applied to the phenomenon that country folk observed at that time of year, those silky, gossamer threads floating in the autumn air.It seems that over the years, just like those tiny spiders, the word 'gossamer' has drifted a long way....You'll find the Walt Whitman poem here:http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=222For more about gossamer, including Henry David Thoreau's fascination with it, check out 'Beneath the Second Sun: A Cultural History of Indian Summer,' by Adam W. Sweeting.http://tinyurl.com/56odbo--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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[This episode first aired September 13, 2008.]When you get to the end of a wonderful book, your first impulse is to tell someone else about it. In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss what they've been reading and the delights of great prose.An Illinois man recalls that as a kid, he used to mix fountain drinks of every flavor into a concoction he and his friends called a 'suicide.' He wonders if anyone else calls them that. Why a 'suicide'? Because it looks and tastes like poison?It started as a typo for 'own,' now it's entrenched in online slang. A Kentucky caller is curious about 'pwn.' It rhymes with 'own' and means 'to defeat' or 'to triumph over.' Our hosts talk about a special meaning of 'own' in the computer-gaming world.Quiz Guy John Chaneski is Havana good time with Martha and Grant on an round-the-world 'International Puzzle Hunt' that will leave you Beijing for more.You seem to hear it on all the television hospital dramas: 'stat!' A physician says she knows it means 'immediately,' but she doesn't know its origins. Quick! Is there a Latin expert in the house?A San Diego fisherman notes that he hears mariners talk about 'snotty weather.' 'Snotty?' Is it the kind that gives you the sniffles? Or is does it cop an attitude?Do you ever stare at a word so long that you think it's mispellllled? Even though it isn't? Your dialectal duo hunt up a word for that phenomenon.Grant and Martha reveal what books are on their own nightstands, waiting to be read. Just the top of the stacks, natch, because there are just too many.This week's 'Slang This!' contestant tries to guess the meaning of the terms 'liver rounds' and 'put the bite on someone.'An Indianapolis woman who grew up in the South says that when her slip was showing, her father used to say, 'Who do you think you are, Miss Astor'?' Martha shares other euphemisms for slips showing. If someone sidles up to you and says, 'Pssssst! Mrs. White is out of jail,' it's time to check your hemline.You can tell someone's an 'A Way with Words' listener when they confess to lying awake at night wondering about questions like, 'Are the words 'fillet' and 'flay' etymologically related?'A Minnesotan has been observing his infant babbling, and wonders if words like 'mama' and 'papa' arise from sounds that babies naturally make anyway. Are there some words or sounds that are instinctive? Or do they only learn them from their parents?--Get your language question answered on the air! Usage, grammar, spelling, punctuation, slang, old sayings, other languages, speech, writing, you name it. Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web

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Last year British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green struck a deal with the publisher Chambers Harrap to create an exhaustive dictionary of English slang. Now, says the London Telegraph, the first fruit of that relationship has appeared in the form of the Chambers Slang Dictionary.The main sources of slang, Green says, have remained the same: sex and sexual organs, drinking, and terms of abuse. But ,there are always innovations. The Telegraph offers some of them: boilerhouse, modern British rhyming slang for spouse. Jawsing, US teen slang for lying. And, muzzy, an Irish word for a naughty child. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slang.xmlIn the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times, Jennifer Scheussler reviews 'On The Dot,' by Nicholas and Alexander Humez. It's an exhaustive look at the period or the dot, that little piece of punctuation that does so much. And I do mean exhaustive. The book is so digressive and sometimes so far afield of its subject matter that you might find yourself flipping to the front to make sure you're still reading the same book.http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/dot-everything/In the discussion forum on that page, I discovered the 'fini.' This is a new piece of punctuation created by Dave Rosenthal, an assistant managing editor at the Baltimore Sun. The fini is a square instead of a circle. Dave says, 'A period is usually a fine way to end a sentence. But when there's a forcefulness attached to the words, I worry that the period will roll away. It is, after all, just a tiny black ball.' http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/07/the_endofdiscussion.htmlDo you want to find out what Virginia Woolf and John Steinbeck sounded like? They're part of an audio collection from the British Library, called 'The Spoken Word: British Writers.' It was discussed and played on NPR's All Things Considered. The audio is a rare find, as many recordings of the early days of radio were never saved. Recordings by George Orwell, for example, have yet to be found, even though he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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This week on 'A Way with Words': Feel like having a little 'hair of the dog'? Grant and Martha explain what dog hair has to do with hangover cures. And what do you call it when random objects form a recognizable image, like a cloud resembling a bunny, or the image of Elvis in a grilled cheese sandwich? With all this talk about this year's election ballot, did you ever stop to think about where the word 'ballot' comes from? Martha and Grant discuss terms related to politics, including 'ballot' and 'leg treasurer.''A fish stinks from the head down.' When an Indianapolis woman is quoted saying this, she's accused of calling the leader of a particular organization a stinky fish. She says she wasn't speaking literally, insisting that this is a turn of phrase that means 'corruption in an organization starts at the top.' Who's right?Dude, how'd we ever start using the word 'dude'? The Big Grantbowski traces the word's origin - it's over 125 years old.Quiz Guy John Chaneski drops by with a puzzle involving overlapping words. He calls it, of course, 'Overlap-Plied Linguistics.' If you're hung over, and someone offers you 'a little hair of the dog,' you can rest assured you're not being offered a sip of something with real dog hair in it. But was that always the case? Grant has the answer, and Martha offers a word once proposed as a medical term for this crapulent condition: veisalgia.http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=crapulent&r=66A new resident of Pittsburgh is startled by some of the dialect there, like 'yinz' instead of 'you' for the second person plural, and nebby for 'nosy.' What's up with that? For a wonderful site about the dialect of that area, check out Pittsburgh Speech and Society. http://english.cmu.edu/pittsburghspeech/index.htmlIf someone says he 'finna go,' he means he's leaving. But finna? Grant has the final word about finna.Good news if you've wondered about a word for recognizable images composed of random visual stimuli - that image of Elvis in your grilled-cheese sandwich, for example. It's pareidolia. Here's the article Martha mentions from wordorigins.org:http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/audio_pareidolia/In this week's 'Slang This!,' a member of the National Puzzlers' League from Boston tries to guess the meaning of four possible slang terms, including 'labanza,' 'woefits,' 'prosciutto,' and 'moose-tanned.'At Murray's Cheese http://www.murrayscheese.com/ in Grand Central Station, the workers who sell cheese are called 'cheesemongers.' The store's opening up a new section to sell cold cuts, and workers there are looking for more appetizing term than 'meatmonger.' (Meat-R-Maids? Never mind.) Martha and Grant try to help.At sports events in North America, we enthusiastically root for the home team, right? But a woman from Kenosha, Wisconsin, says an Aussie told her that they most assuredly don't do that Down Under. There, he tells her, rooting means 'having sex.' Is he pulling her leg, she wonders?--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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Here's a riddle: 'Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.' Think you know the answer? You'll find it in this week's episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other old-fashioned riddles. Also: how did the phrase 'going commando' come to be slang for 'going without underwear'? And which word is correct: 'orient' or 'orientate'?To go commando means to 'go without underwear.' But why 'commando'? An Indiana listener says the term came up in conversation with her husband after one of them had a near-wardrobe malfunction. She mercifully leaves the rest to the imagination, but still wonders about the term. Grant says its popularity zoomed after a popular episode of 'Friends.' Watch the clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0JgkuNBuWIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q--6wtCPHg8&feature=relatedA woman who grew up in India says she was baffled when someone with aching feet complained, 'My dogs are barking.' The answer may lie in a jocular rhyme.Martha is baffled when Grant shares another riddle involving 'four stiff standers, two lookers, and one switchbox.' Can you figure out the answer?To-ga! To-ga! To-ga! John Chaneski's latest quiz, 'Classics Class,' has the hosts rooting around for the ancient Greek and Latin origins of English words.Those who commute coast-to-coast are 'bicoastals.' But what do you call someone who commutes along the same coast--between, say, Miami and New York? A woman who now travels regularly between Northern and Southern California to visit the grandchildren wonders what to call herself. She's already considered and nixed 'bipolar.' The hosts try to come up with other suggestions.Remember when no one ever thought about adding the suffix '-gate' to a word to indicate a scandal? Now there's Troopergate, Travelgate, Monicagate, Cameragate, Sandwichgate, and of course, the mother of all gates, Watergate. Grant talks about the flood of '-gate' words inspired by that scandal from the 1970s.An Atlanta listener seeks clarification about the difference between may and might? Might 'may' be used to express a possibility, or is 'might' a better choice?In this week's slang quiz, a member of the National Puzzlers' League http://www.puzzlers.org from Somerville, Massachusetts tries to guess the meaning of bottle room and shred, as used in the context of snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing.Do you cringe when you hear the words orientate and disorientate? A copy editor in Waldoboro, Maine does. She'd rather hear 'orient' and 'disorient.' The hosts weigh in on that extra syllable.They were the last words Abraham Lincoln heard before John Wilkes Booth assassinated him: 'Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside-out, old gal--you sockdologizing old man-trap!' Booth knew that this line from the play 'Our American Cousin' would get a big laugh, so he chose that moment to pull the trigger. A Wisconsin listener wants to know the meaning and origin of that curious word, 'sockdologizing.' If you want to read the whole play, which has some silly wordplay and a dopey riddle or two, it's online at Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3158Does one take preventive or preventative measures? A caller in Ocean Beach, California who just graduated from an exercise science program wants to know which of these terms describes what she's been studying.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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The British publishers of the Collins dictionary have announced 24 words on their endangered species list. They're words like 'vilipend,' which means 'to treat with contempt,' and 'nitid,' that's n-i-t-i-d, which means 'glistening. ' The editors warn that if they don't see evidence of these words being used in everyday speech and writing, they'll drop them from the dictionary's next edition. They've even set deadline for the doomed words: February 2009. But they've also offered the public a chance to weigh in, and vote for which words deserve a reprieve.Sure, it's a great publicity stunt. But I have to say that the thought of any word being voted off the lexical island makes me wince. I understand, of course, that culling the herd is a necessary evil. First, there's the economic reality of dictionary publishing--more words mean more pages, and more pages mean more costs per unit. Still, I have to tell you I was aghast to realize that on the list was one of my favorite words ever. The word is caducity--c-a-d-u-c-i-t-y. Caducity. It means 'perishability, transience.' More specifically, it can denote 'the infirmities that accompany old age.' Caducity comes from the Latin word 'cadere,' which means 'to fall.' The same root produced other falling words, like 'cascade' and most likely, 'cadaver,' literally, 'one who has fallen.'So what I love about this word is that tucked inside it' is a picture of falling away, like leaves in autumn. You might speak of 'the caducity of fame' or the 'caducity of nature.' Or you might say, 'I worry about my parents' growing caducity.'There's a wistful beauty about this word. And it's not just poetic, it's musical. Listen: caducity.Contrary to what you might think, lexicographers say it's incredibly hard to coin a word that sticks around long enough to wind up in the dictionary. Same goes for self-conscious efforts to revive words that have become obsolete.But I'm convinced that 'caducity' has hardly outlived its usefulness. So I'm asking you to join me: Adopt it as your own. Use it. Drop it into casual conversation. Put it into a poem. On a vanity license plate--I don't care. Just use it.Another thing lexicographers tell us is that just because a word isn't in a dictionary, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So regardless of what the Collins editors decide in February, I'm going to hang on to this one.Then again, if we all start using it, maybe we can save this lovely word from, well, caducity.Check out the other words on Collins list here. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3046488/Collins-dictionary-asks-public-to-rescue-outdated-words.html --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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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Reading the OED from A to Z (minicast)Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics' puzzlement, was Shea's new book, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 pages. Martha talks about what he learned along the way.http://ammonshea.com/oed.html Years ago, I covered a story for a sports magazine about Tori Murden, a woman trying row a 23-foot boat across the ocean. She set out from the Canary Islands with four months' provisions...and little else: No motor, no sail, no support vessel traveling along with her.And after 81 days, and 2,962 lonely miles at sea, she reached her goal, becoming the first woman ever to row a boat across the Atlantic.But for Murden, the challenge of rowing an ocean was nothing compared to the struggle of trying to explain why she'd done it in the first place: Why endure crushing boredom, blazing heat, chilling rain, blisters, and backaches day after day - all in order to row a little boat from one continent to the next? Recently I thought of Murden while I was reading a book about, of all things, dictionaries. It's by Ammon Shea, and it's called...'Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages.'You see where I'm going here: When it comes to dictionaries, Shea is into extreme adventure. This book chronicles his quirky quest to scale the Mount Everest of lexicography: the great Oxford English Dictionary.Shea is besotted with words. In fact, he quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City in order to spend a whole year reading the OED. He writes that he did so to find out 'what words there are for things in the world that I had always thought unnamed.' And find them he did. Words like:Petrichor (PEH-trih-kerr). That's p-e-t-r-i-c-h-o-r. It means 'the pleasant smell of rain on the ground, especially after a dry spell.' You knew there should be a word for that, right? Or how about 'apricity'? That word denotes 'the warmth of the sun in winter.'Or how about 'balter,' 'to dance clumsily.' Now that's handy.Trudging though page after page, the author suffers headaches, eyestrain, and a growing ghastly pallor from long days reading in the basement of a New York. Fortunately for Shea, his girlfriend is a former lexicographer for Merriam-Webster - and, one assumes, an extraordinarily patient person. Shea's long march from A to Z is often exhilarating, sometimes numbing. His heart sinks upon realizing that the section of words starting with the prefix 'un-' -- as in 'unabandoned, unable' -- goes on for 451 pages. He write: 'By the time I've read one hundred pages I am near catatonic, bored out of my mind, and so listless I can't remember why I wanted to read any of this in the first place.'After pressing on through the letter U, Shea is rewarded with gems like velleity, which means 'a mere wish or desire for something without accompanying action or effort.' And zoilus. A zoilus is an 'envious critic.' As for the question 'Why?' Shea has a ready answer. He writes that he read the dictionary cover to cover because, quite simply: 'It was the most engrossing and enjoyable book I've ever read.' It's also why, after finishing the last page, he writes, he happily started over. And I thought I was a big word nerd.And now, I have to get back to some dictionary-diving myself.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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The world of politics tops this week's language headlines, including an explanation of the Bradley effect, and the ongoing debate over bilingual education. Also, what does the word fubsy mean? Grant has the answer, and reports about a new favorite blog described as 'LOLcats for smart people.'Ever since it started looking like Barack Obama was more than a long shot for his party's nomination, pollsters, and pundits have been talking about the 'Bradley effect.' It's when polls show a black political candidate way out in front. And yet, when the votes are cast, the black candidate barely wins or doesn't even win at all. As William Safire writes in the New York Times, the expression comes from Tom Bradley's loss of the governorship of California in 1982. Then, polls predicted that he would win, but, in fact, he lost by a small margin. Many people felt that Bradley, who was black, lost because hidden racists wouldn't admit to pollsters their true intentions.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/magazine/28wwln-safire-t.htmlAlso in the campaign coverage is an ongoing discussion of bilingual education. Is it better to teach immigrant children only in English or should we teach them in a language they already know? http://tinyurl.com/5xrt93That's the premise of a debate on the New York Times Education Watch blog. The presidential candidate's views come under some scrutiny by a couple of experts, but most interesting are the reader comments. One wrote, 'I am struck by how much the debate about the quantity of English in the classroom quickly devolves from a sensible search for the best strategy, to an ideological war that produces some very silly teaching strategies.'Speaking of campaigns, ever heard of the word fubsy? Well, British dictionary publisher Collins is threatening to cut that and other archaic words from its dictionaries. It's mainly a public relations effort, but they've succeeded in bringing out the word-lovers to nominate and mull favorite archaic words of their own. Fubsy, by the way, means 'short and stout.'http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4798835.ecehttp://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1847038,00.htmlAnd finally, it's the latest in a long line of many similar sites, but a new favorite blog is Wordsplosion. There you'll find photographs of English gone wrong. Like the grocery store sign that says 'dairy choices.' And under that it says 'cheese and cheese.'http://www.wordsplosion.com--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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Regional Food Names: When Is a Milkshake Not a Milkshake?We asked you to tell us about odd regional food names, and boy did you oblige! Martha reads some of your letters about whoopie pies, hot tamales, pretzel salad, and coolers, plus the frappe vs. milkshake controversy.Welcome to another minicast of A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette.A while back, we talked about how the name of a particular food that you grew up with might be utterly mystifying to someone from another part of the country. Grant described the pork steaks that he ate all the time in Missouri, and I talked about how my family in Louisville ate Benedictine, a mix of cucumber and cream cheese. We asked you for other examples. What came through loud and clear was this: You don't have to be in a foreign country to be baffled by the local menu. We heard from Cindy in San Diego who told us about the culinary culture shock of moving from Michigan to Boston. When she and her husband ordered a milk shake there, she was surprised when 'what we got was milk with chocolate syrup - as watery as, well, chocolate milk! We were really confused. Then we described to the waitress what we thought we had ordered, and she exclaimed in a heavy Boston accent, 'Oh, you want a frappe!'Cindy went on to say: 'The other thing we found in Boston and nowhere else in the country was a confection called a Whoopie Pie - two chocolate cookie/cakelike disks filled in between with a white cream or icing in the center. Whatever store in Boston we happened to be, or at a bakery, there were the Whoopie Pies in all their glory. Never have seen these anywhere else in the country and if I ask people here in San Diego where I could get some Whoopie Pies, they'd just look at me cross-eyed.'Well, Cindy, that sounds a lot like what we in the South call 'Moon Pies.' Although if I ever need a stage name or nom de plume, I'm going to give serious thought to calling myself 'Whoopie Pie.' Or how about this one: Have you ever eaten 'pretzel salad'? I sure haven't - never even heard of it. But a listener named Michael tells us that pretzel salad is lime jello with carrots and pretzels mixed into it. 'It's mostly an East Coast thing,' he says. Hmmmm, another reason I'm glad I live in California.Mary wrote from Sheboygan, Michigan to say that when she first moved there 30 years ago, she noticed that the school lunch one day was 'hot tamales.' Mary writes, 'I was astounded that Sheboygan was so diverse that the school lunch for every child in the district was tamales. Later that day I discovered that what Sheboyganites call hot tamales are what I called barbecue and what other folks call sloppy joes. She adds:'Sheboygan has many unique words for things including coolers, also known as 'popsicles.''Finally, we also heard from you about food names that families invent and use among themselves. Take Mary of Lower Lake, California. She wrote to tell us about 'Hairy Arm Hot Dogs.' When she was growing up in Troy, New York, she recalls, the family would say, 'Hey, want to go for a Hairy Arm?' They'd troop off to the local hot dog stand with excitement. 'The origin of the name Hairy Arm,' she writes, 'came from how the stand's owner's practice of lining hot dogs up the length of his forearm while he dressed them with relish, onions, etc. Sometimes a hair from his arm would get on the hot dog.'You know, I can just picture that. Anyway, that's all for this minicast. Call us any time with your questions and comments about regional dialects, family sayings, grammar, slang, word origins, you name it. The number's 1-877-929-9673. Or send your emails to words@waywordradio.org. If you just can't wait to chat about language, join the party at our discussion forum. That's at waywordradio.org/discussion.Thanks for tuning in. For A Way with Words, I'm Martha Barnette.--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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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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/4mc8dmThe 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 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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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A listener in Brazil challenges Martha's pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word....Recently on our show, I made a linguistic boo-boo. Did you catch it?We were talking about the word 'podium.' A listener named Joel called to say that the word 'podium' originally denoted something you stand on. But more and more, people are using it to mean something you 'stand behind.' Joel was none too happy about that.I told him he was right about the roots of the word 'podium,' even though its meaning has changed. M: I feel your pain Joel. Absolutely, podium comes from ultimately from a Greek word meaning 'foot.' G: Yeah, but that doesn't mean -- M: Hear me out. Hear me out! It's like podiatrist, the doctor who looks after your feet. It's like antipodes, the people on the other side of the world from us, exactly. There's a big old foot in that word.J: There sure is!Did you catch my mistake? One of our listeners in Brazil did. Luciano emailed from Sao Paolo to say I'd mispronounced that word for people on the other side of world. A-n-t-i-p-o-d-e-s, he wrote, isn't pronounced 'ANN-ti-poads.' It's 'ann-TIP-uh-dees.' - he's right! 'Ann-TIP-uh-dees' means, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it: 'Those who dwell directly opposite to each other on the globe, so that the soles of their feet are, as it were, planted against each other.'It's a poetic word, 'ann-TIP-uh-dees,' those Greek roots conjuring an image of people standing sole to sole, yet separated by an entire planet. The English word 'ann-TIP-uh-dees' was originally plural in form, referring to lots of people. The singular version, 'ANN-tih-poad,' came only later, by a process linguists call back-formation.In any case, my only excuse for mispronouncing the word is this: In elementary school, I'd seen that singular form, 'ANN-tih-pode,' and just assumed that the plural would naturally be 'ANN-ti-podes.'You may be wondering why an elementary-school kid would run into the word 'antipode' at all. Let me tell you about a book of poems that I just love. It's called 'Grooks' by Piet Hein. If you're not familiar with it, you're in for a treat. Hein was a 20th-century Danish scientist, poet, and designer. He was always trying to bridge the gap between art and science, which is probably why he counted among his close friends both Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. He also wrote short, insightful poems in Danish, English, and another passion of his, Esperanto.Here's a pithy poem called 'Problems':Problems worthy of attackProve their worthBy hitting back.Nuff said.Here's one that he called 'A Psychological Tip':Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,And you're hampered by not having any,The best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,Is simply by spinning a penny.No - not so that chance shall decide the affairWhile you're passively standing there moping;But the moment the penny is up in the air,You suddenly know what you're hoping.I tell you, I've used that tip more times than I can count.And finally, the poem that introduced me to the word 'antipode.' It will steadily shrink,our earthly abode,until antipode standsupon antipode.Then, soles together,the planet gone,we'll know the groundthat we rest upon.The book is called 'Grooks' by Piet Hein. Here are some more examples of his poems.http://www.chat.carleton.ca/~tcstewar/grooks/grooks.html---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 2008, Wayword LLC.

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