A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

If you’ve eaten crispy chicken, you might also have had jo-jo potatoes. Speaking of chicken, ever wonder why colonel isn’t pronounced KOH-loh-nell? Grant and Martha have the answers to those nagging little questions, like the difference between a turnpike and a highway and the rules on me versus I. Who’s behind eponyms in anatomy and why are doctors phasing them out? Plus, a newsy limerick challenge, dog breed mashups, pallets, a little Spanglish, and enough -ologies to fill a course catalog! Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get out your skinny jeans and pass the PBR! Martha and Grant discuss the definition of the word hipster. Also, what happens when you pull a brodie? And why do we describe something cheap or poorly made as cheesy? Also, sawbucks, pulling a brodie, shoestring budgets, the origins of bootlegging, and cabbie lingo, including the slang word bingo. FULL DETAILS A former cabbie shares his favorite jargon, like green pea and making your nut. Someone waving down an occupied cab is known as a bingo, and the cabbie will usually tell the dispatcher to send another car. A San Diego cabdriver has gathered much more taxi slang here. Is there any etymological connection between the dairy product and the adjective cheesy, meaning inferior, cheap, or otherwise sub-par? This descriptive term for something lowbrow or poorly made at one point had positive connotations in the 1800s, when something great could be said to be cheesy as a rare Stilton. Over time, though, cheesy took on the connotation of something unappealing, an apparent reference to a low quality, stinky cheese. A shoestring budget is a spending plan that's as thin and spindly as a shoestring. Not surprisingly, the term gained popularity during the Great Depression. A line from The Moor of Venice, that I would liefer bide, features an old word for rather that shares a root with the words love and leave, as in by your leave. Cabbies are sometimes known to stretch their hood, which means to fib to the dispatcher about their location. Sometimes they have to drive out of bounds to pick up a fare. Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a word puzzle based on so-called container clues, where the answer is divided into two words, one which is found inside the other. For this game, the answers are all Greek gods. A Word-Book of Virginia Folk Speak from 1912 includes this gem: Bachelors' wives and old maid's children are the best people in the world. What is a hipster? Is it an insult to call someone a hipster, even if they're, well, a hipster? Do hipsters identify themselves as hipsters? Grant traces the label from 1960s counterculture to today's skinny-jeaned Brooklyn paradox. The handy term omnishambles means all in shambles, and has found its way from the British TV comedy The Thick of It to the floor of the House of Commons. What is a cuculoris? This lighting grate, which also goes by such names as cookie, gobo, and dapple sheet, is used in photography to cast a dramatic shadow. There are lots of spellings of this word, including cucoloris, kookaloris, cookaloris, and cucalorus. The name may have to do with George Cukor, an early pioneer of the tool in old Hollywood. Add this to your list of paraprosdokians: Two guys walked into a bar. The third one ducked. Where does the term bootleg come from? Originally, smugglers tucked bottles of alcohol into their pants to sneak them onto Indian reservations to sell illegally. The term knockoff also refers to pants, and buttleg is a variant that can refer to contraband cigarettes. Why do we call a ten-dollar bill a sawbuck? The support for woodworking known as a sawbuck folds out into the shape of an X, the same shape as the Roman numeral for ten. Hence, the slang term for the currency worth ten bucks. Can you get away with calling a misspelled word a typo if you didn't know how to spell it in the first place? One variety of mistake is called a performance error, where the goof is somehow related to the machine or keyboard. A competence error occurs when someone doesn't know the difference between your and you're in the first place. To spin a brodie or pull a brodie is to spin a doughnut in a car. The term derives from the name of Steve Brodie, who allegedly jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886. To do a brodie, originally meaning to jump or fall, came to mean any kind of stunt. On the website A Poem From Us, people upload videos of themselves reading poetry from other writers. Here, David Jones reads "A Cradle Song" by William Butler Yeats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should youngsters learn cursive handwriting in school? Plus, someone can be ruthless, but can that same person be ruthful? Which word refers to something larger, humongous or gargantuan? Also, funny newspaper corrections, a crossword quiz, Texas idioms, and a version of Three Blind Mice with an upgraded vocabulary. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org. Be a part of the show: call or text 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text +1 619 800 4443. Send voice notes or messages via WhatsApp 16198004443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can children adopted from other countries easily re-learn their native languages as adults? And if you’re invited to an old-fashioned pound party, what should you bring? Also, regional names for those wheeled contraptions you use at the grocery, summer reading recommendations, and a breed of cat that’s supposed to bring you riches and good luck. Plus, the Tour de Franzia (as in boxed wine), police slang from the 1940’s, mnemonics, and a breed of cat that brings good luck and riches!Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Give Now for the $25,000 Fundraising Challenge Dear friends and listeners, As we near the end of our biggest year yet, we must raise $25,000 to cover the remainder of this season. We need your help to reach that amount before December 30th. Reaching that goal will mean covering fixed costs: Broadcast studio rental. A sound engineer and board operator. Website hosting. Podcast hosting. The toll-free phone line. Episode distribution through the Public Radio Satellite System — an expense that will increase 50% in 2012. What you may not know is that when you donate to your local station — as you should — none of that money goes to A Way with Words. We’re independent of any radio station and independent of NPR. We receive no funds from them at all. This means, in part, that A Way with Words can carry out its educational mission without excessive bureaucracy and overhead costs. It also means we can make it available to everyone, completely free of charge. But it also means that to do well, we require support from our listeners. We need your donations, whether you listen online or on the air. Show us that we can count on you. Make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more today. If that’s too much, please donate what you can. If you’ve given to A Way with Words before, thank you! But can we ask you to double your donation this time? Will you go the extra mile to support quality radio that respects your intelligence? You can also send your donations by postal mail to this address: Wayword, Inc. P.O. Box 632721 San Diego, CA 92163 Thank you for the affection and support you’ve shown in your phone calls in emails over the past year. We wish you and your family all the love in the world. Best wishes, and happy holidays, Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette co-hosts of A Way with Words PS: A Way with Words is now heard on the air in more than 173 cities across North America and we’re happy to report that the program will also be heard on Vermont Public Radio starting in January! Wayword, Inc., is a small non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. It receives no funding from NPR, PRI, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or any public radio station or broadcast network. Support amazing radio today! All donations to Wayword, Inc., the nonprofit that produces A Way with Words, are tax-deductible. Our Federal tax ID number is #27-0277377. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve eaten crispy chicken, you might also have had jo-jo potatoes. Speaking of chicken, ever wonder why colonel isn’t pronounced KOH-loh-nell? Grant and Martha have the answers to those nagging little questions, like the difference between a turnpike and a highway and the rules on me versus I. Who’s behind eponyms in anatomy and why are doctors phasing them out? Plus, a newsy limerick challenge, dog breed mashups, pallets, a little Spanglish, and enough -ologies to fill a course catalog! Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever drop a reference that just makes you sound, well, of a certain age? Grant and Martha discuss language that’s lost on other generations. Why is the entree the main course? Shouldn’t it come first? And why is the letter k silent in “knot” and “knight”? Plus, the right way to say “the,” a remedy for the superstition of splitting the pole, names for the toes straight from Mother Goose, the difference between finished and done, and a special word quiz for all you zombie fans!Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/contact. Be a part of the show: call 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; worldwide, call or text/SMS +1 (619) 800-4443. Email words@waywordradio.org. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARYIs typing two spaces after a period "totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong?" Martha and Grant disagree. Also, is the language of the movie "True Grit" historically accurate? Also, shut your pie-hole, Southern grammar, Oh my Lady Gaga, and a little town called Podunk.FULL DETAILSHow many spaces go after a period?  Your schoolteacher may have taught you to use two, but others strongly disagree.  http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/Shut your piehole! means "Shut your mouth!" Need more slang terms for the mouth? For starters, there's potato trap, tater trap, tatty trap, bun trap, gingerbread trap, kissing trap, fly trap, rattle trap, baconhole, and cakehole.Where is Podunk?  Grant explains that a columnist in the 1800s used the name for his series called "Life in the Small Town of Podunk," referring to a generic backwoods American town.A listener shares a phrase he learned in Peru that translates as "more lost than a hard-boiled egg in ceviche." It describes someone who's lost or clueless.Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game worthy of the Saturday puzzle called "Cryptic Crosswords".Is the formal language in "True Grit" (2010) historically accurate?  The hosts discuss why the Coen brothers would do away with contractions to set a tone for the movie.A transplant from Zimbabwe finds the word irregardless annoying and ungrammatical. Grant explains that regardless of its status, "irregardless" is needlessly redundant.The phrase oh, my goodness may be a dated way to express surprise or disbelief.  A listener asks for a contemporary replacement.Multiple modals, as in the phrase "I thought y'all may would have some more of them," have their own logic and are well understood by many in the American South.The Database of Multiple Modals compiled by Paul Reed and Michael Montgomery is here.http://casdemo.cas.sc.edu/modals_d/If you call someone a card, it means they're funny or quick-witted.  Grant and Martha discuss the metaphors inspired by the language of playing cards. What do you serve to a lawyer coming to dinner?  A listener shares her riddle for the "What Would You Serve" game?Have you been asked to trip the light fantastic?  This phrase, meaning "dance the night away", dates back to a poem by John Milton from 1640.Martha shares the German slang term niveaulimbo, meaning "a limbo of standards".  Why is the word pound abbreviated lb.?  A listener from Tijuana, Mex., learns that the answer relates to his native Spanish as well as the Latin term for "weighing."Martha reads a love sonnet by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here's the text of the original Spanish, with an English translation by Mark Eisner.http://www.redpoppy.net/poem37.phpAnd here's a lovely audio rendering of the poem in Spanish.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJhxNhy3BVA--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: 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 2011, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARYThis week on "A Way with Words": If you've "seen the elephant," it means you've been in combat. But why an elephant? Also, Martha and Grant discuss some funny idioms in Spanish, including one that translates as "your bowtie is whistling." And what names do you call YOUR grandparents? FULL DETAILSIf you're in Bangladesh, the expression that translates as "oiling your mustache in anticipation of the jackfruit tree bearing fruit" makes perfect sense. In English, it means "don't count your chickens." A discussion thread on Reddit with this and many other examples has Martha and Grant talking about odd idioms in other languages. http://bit.ly/ifBbAQA Marine stationed in California says that growing up in North Carolina, he understood the expression fixin' to mean "to be about to."Some office workers say their word processor's spellchecker always flags the words overnighted and overnighting. Are those words acceptable in a business environment?"You really love peeled potatoes." That's a translation of a Venezuelan idiom describing someone who's lazy. Grant and Martha share other idioms from South America.Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle called "Blank My Blank."A woman in Burlington, Vt., says her mother used to use the expression Land o' Goshen! to express surprise or amazement. Where is Goshen?A Yankee transplant to the South says that restaurant servers are confused when he tells them, "I'm all set." Is he all set to continue his meal, or all set to leave? A woman in Eau Claire, Wis., remembers a ditty she learned from her mother about "thirty purple birds," but with a distinctive pronunciation that sounds more like "Toidy poipel blackbirds / Sittin' on a coibstone / Choipin' and boipin' / And eatin' doity oithworms."Here's the Red Hot Chili Peppers version:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fw8YywYatAMartha offers excellent writing advice from the former editor of People magazine, Landon Y. Jones. His whole article is here:http://bit.ly/gVRekIA former Texan wonders if only Texans use the terms Mamaw and Papaw instead of Grandma and Grandpa.Martha shares some Argentine idioms, including one that translates as "What a handrail!" for "What a bad smell!"A West Point graduate says he and fellow members of the military use the expression He has seen the elephant to mean "He's seen combat." Grant explains that this expression originated outside the military.Do you flesh out a plan or flush out a plan?Another Argentine idiom goes arrugaste como frenada de gusano. It means "You were scared," but literally, it's "You wrinkled like a stopping worm."--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: 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 2011, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARYShadowdabbled. Moon-blanched. Augusttremulous. William Faulkner often used odd adjectives like these. But why? Grant and Martha discuss the poetic effects of compressed language. Also, African-American proverbs, classic children's books, pore vs. pour, and the double meaning of the word sanction.FULL DETAILSAmid the stacks of new titles at the library, Grant picks out The Wind in the Willows to read with his son. The hosts discuss the appeal of classic children's books. A bi-coastal listener wonders about the terms West Coast and Eastern Seaboard. Why don't we say Californians live on the Western Seaboard?Does an avid reader pore or pour over a book?There is always a person greater or lesser than yourself. Grant shares this and other African-American proverbs.Quiz Guy John Chaneski borrows a classic game from Joseph Shipley called Twin Ends. The expression that smarts, meaning "that hurts," dates back over a thousand years. Does sanction mean "a penalty" or "an approval"?  Well, both. Martha explains the nature of contranyms, also known as Janus words. Here's an article about them in the periodical Verbatim.www.verbatimmag.com/27_2.pdfListeners share their suggestions for the game What Would You Serve?  Hosting a golfer for dinner? Tea and greens should be lovely!William Faulkner used adjectives like shadowdabbled, Augusttremulous, and others that can only be described as, well, Faulknerian. Grant and Martha trade theories about why the great writer chose them. The University of Virginia has an online audio archive of Faulkner's during his tenure as that school's Writer-in-Residence.http://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/Here's a 1956 interview with Faulkner about the art of writing. It ran in The Paris Review.http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4954/the-art-of-fiction-no-12-william-faulknerIn a previous episode, we wondered how U-turn might translate in different languages. One listener explains that in Hebrew, drivers make a horseshoe or a hoof-turn.The Century Dictionary contains a list of amended spellings from the late 1800s that only creates more of the confusion it set out to alleviate.   Which is correct: We appreciate your asking or We appreciate you're asking? A new transplant to Dallas wants to assimilate into the Texan way of speaking without offending the locals or forcing any new vocabulary.Ever hear a broadcast where the announcer enunciates a little too precisely?  Grant and Martha discuss the effect of softening syllables, such as "prolly" for "probably," and "wanna" for "want to."--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: 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 2011, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices