Bite the Wax Tadpole - 24 March 2008

(This episode first aired December 15, 2007.)

In this episode, Martha and Grant discuss advertising slogans and product names supposedly botched in translation.

'Biting the Wax Tadpole'? It's the wacky title of a new book by language enthusiast Elizabeth Little which has Martha and Grant talking about whether Coca-Cola and Chevrolet ran into cultural translation problems when selling products abroad. Did the Chevy Nova really sell poorly in Latin America because 'No va' means 'don't go' in Spanish?

A caller wants help understanding a phrase he saw in 'Sports Illustrated': 'enough money to burn a wet dog.'

Other callers have weird words on their minds, including 'biffy' (meaning 'toilet') and 'gedunk' (meaning 'ice cream' or 'a snack bar' where you might buy sweets).

Greg Pliska has a quiz about chemical names that should exist but don't.

A caller asks about how lakes get named and we talk about a lake with a 45-letter Indian name that may or may not translate as, 'You fish on your side, I fish on my side and nobody fishes in the middle.' It's Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

A caller from Indiana wonders if the T9 text-messaging function has led to the term 'book' being a new term for 'cool.'

This week's slang contestant learns about the slang terms 'bluebird' and 'corpsing.'

A New York caller is incensed by the verb 'incent' and a California listener is puzzled when his Southern relatives observe that his new baby is 'fixing to tune up' whenever she's about to start crying.

A caller from San Diego has a friendly disagreement with friends about the phrase bald-faced lie v. bold-faced lie.

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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.(This episode first aired December 15, 2007.)

In this episode, Martha and Grant discuss advertising slogans and product names supposedly botched in translation. They also recommend an eclectic mix of books for the word-lover on your holiday list, from military slang to Yiddish.

'Biting the Wax Tadpole'? It's the wacky title of a new book by language enthusiast Elizabeth Little which has Martha and Grant talking about whether Coca-Cola and Chevrolet ran into cultural translation problems when selling products abroad. Did the Chevy Nova really sell poorly in Latin America because 'No va' means 'don't go' in Spanish?

A caller wants help understanding a phrase he saw in 'Sports Illustrated': 'enough money to burn a wet dog.'

Other callers have weird words on their minds, including 'biffy' (meaning 'toilet') and 'gedunk' (meaning 'ice cream' or 'a snack bar' where you might buy sweets).

Greg Pliska has a quiz about chemical names that should exist but don't.

A caller asks about how lakes get named and we talk about a lake with a 45-letter Indian name that may or may not translate as, 'You fish on your side, I fish on my side and nobody fishes in the middle.' It's Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

A caller from Indiana wonders if the T9 text-messaging function has led to the term 'book' being a new term for 'cool.'

This week's slang contestant learns about the slang terms 'bluebird' and 'corpsing.'

A New York caller is incensed by the verb 'incent' and a California listener is puzzled when his Southern relatives observe that his new baby is 'fixing to tune up' whenever she's about to start crying.

A caller from San Diego has a friendly disagreement with friends about the phrase bald-faced lie v. bold-faced lie.

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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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