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

SUMMARYIs the term "Oriental" offensive? Many people think so. Martha and Grant discuss the reasons why. Also, where do we get the phrase "not one iota"? Why do we tell someone to "take a gander"? And who coined the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"? FULL DETAILS"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." This kind of sudden, surprising turn in a sentence is called a paraprosdokian. Martha and Grant trade some examples.Instead of crying "uncle," an Indiana woman's family cries calf-rope! She wonders if this expression of submission is unique to her family.Why do we say take a gander for "have a look"?Will Rogers was a master of paraprosdokians. Martha shares a favorite.Too much sugar for a dime can mean either "too good to be true," or "more trouble than it's worth." Merle Travis and Judy Hayden sing about it here.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvkppduB5d0Quiz Guy John Chaneski reprises his popular "Puzzle Hunt" game.A Chinese-American says she's not offended by the term "Oriental," but she's been told she should be. Who's right?The expression not one iota means not one bit. Martha explains that it goes back to ancient Greek, and explains its connection to the Sermon on the Mount.A caller was taught that peruse means to examine closely and carefully, but increasingly hears people use it to mean skim quickly. "Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices" is a new exhibit at the British Library in London featuring the earliest printed versions of Beowulf, the Wycliffe and King James Bible, and the oldest known example of written English.http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/A physicist is curious about the term learning curve. He pictures it as a pair of axes. But if that's the case, what's X and what's Y?Who coined Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?Martha shares another paraprosdokian.What's the correct adjective to describe something associated with the Democrats? Is it Democrat or Democratic?Blueberry buckle is a dessert with cake batter, fruit, and a streussel topping. What does that have to do with buckles?--A Way with Words is a self-supporting independent production. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.Support the show with your tax deductible donation: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode first aired November 9, 2009.] All aboard! This week, a bit about the musical language of railroad conductors' calls: 'Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!' Also, the origin of the military slang term 'cumshaw,' tips for learning Latin, the influence of Spanish immigrants on English, and the funny story behind why plain-talking Texans say, 'We're going to tell how the cow ate the cabbage.'A trip to the California State Railroad Museum http://www.csrmf.org/ has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual -- in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world http://mic-ro.com/metro/announcements.html. For different type of stroll down mem'ry lane, check out Mel Blanc's version of a train conductor here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVFbz6AsnE.Does anyone still say 'Shut UP!' to mean 'No way!'? A forty-something riding instructor says this Seinfeldian locution confuses some of her younger students.A caller wonders why his North Carolina-born partner uses the phrase 'I'd have liked to' instead of 'I almost' or 'I nearly,' as in 'I'd have liked to died laughing.'Quiz Guy John Chaneski starts a whole lotta shakin' with his puzzle about dances with rhyming names. How about the dance that involves many missteps while dancing to the music of Johann Strauss?Is 'ouch!' a universal word, or does what you say when you stub your toe depend on what language you speak?A Seattle-area veteran remembers that in Vietnam he and others like him were known as 'cumshaw artists.' They were the guys who scared up and permanently borrowed whatever their unit needed -- gasoline, vehicle parts, or whiskey for a party. He's always wondered about the appellation.The phrase 'Let's talk about how the cow ate the cabbage means' 'Let's talk frankly.' The hosts talk plainly about the naughty tale that may be behind it.It's never too late to start learning Latin, a language that will deepen your understanding and appreciation of English. Martha offers tips on how to begin: 'Getting Started with Latin' http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/preview01.php, by William E. Linney, and 'Virent Ova! Viret Perna!' http://www.amazon.com/Virent-Viret-Perna-Green-Latin/dp/0865165556 ('Green Eggs and Ham') by Dr. Seuss, with translation help from Jennifer and Terence Tunberg.A riddle: There's a place where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow's in the middle. Where is it?The word 'scarf,' meaning 'to eat rapidly and greedily,' has a long, winding history. Grant helps a listener unravel it.A die-hard Tyler Perry fan is curious about an emphatic expression she's heard in some of his movies: 'Hell-to-the-no.' What's up with the extra words?A second-generation Mexican-American wonders how much the English language is being influenced by Spanish, especially after a misunderstanding when he turned to his date in the passenger seat and asked if she wanted to 'get down.'Another riddle: I stand on one foot, and my heart is in my head. Who am I?--A Way with Words is a self-supporting independent production. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.Support the show with your tax deductible donation: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode first aired October 24, 2009.]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: "He’s seven feet tall and big as a tank, The meanest Marine that you’ve 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?--A Way with Words is a self-supporting independent production. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.Support the show with your tax deductible donation: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARY We have collective nouns for animals, like "a gaggle of geese," "a pride of lions," and "an exaltation of larks." So why not collective nouns for plants? How about a "greasing of palms," or a "pursing of tulips"? Also, the difference between further and farther, the proper use of crescendo, how Shakespeare sounded in his day, and why a child's runny nose is sometimes referred to as lamb's legs.FULL DESCRIPTIONWe have collective nouns for animals, like "a gaggle of geese," "a pride of lions," and "an exaltation of larks." So why not collective nouns for plants? How about a "greasing of palms," or a "pursing of tulips"? Martha shares some others collected on the site of food writer Gary Allen.http://bit.ly/bKG1yCReverend William Archibald Spooner was known for transposing sounds, like raising a glass "to our queer old dean" instead of "to our dear old queen." A caller shares some favorite Spoonerisms.Boil up some pigs' neck bones, add some liver sausage and buckwheat, mold it in a loaf, then slice, fry, and serve with syrup. Some folks call that scrapple, but a Milwaukee woman's family calls it pannas. A listener asks: "Does the phrase "snap, crackle, and pop" need a cereal comma?"Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle about anagrams.What did Shakespeare's plays sound like in his day? An acting teacher with an interest in dialects wants to know how researchers reconstruct Elizabethan speech. A Pennsylvania college student remembers playing a game called "Whisper Down the Lane." She's surprised to learn that her fellow students call the same game "Telephone."What's the difference between further and farther?Martha shares more funny collective plant names, including a "mommy of poppies."Pity the poor typeface designer, always seeing anachronisms in movies and TV. Imagine how painful it must be watching a World War II movie, only to see a document printed in Snell Roundhand Bold, a font invented in 1972.Here's typeface expert Mark Simonson's analysis of the lettering on "Mad Men."http://bit.ly/3L4a99More about the life of font designers in the new book, Just My Type, by Simon Garfield:http://bit.ly/as5o5aSome speakers of American English use the word whenever to refer to a single event, as in "whenever Abraham Lincoln" died. This locution is a vestige of Scots-Irish speech.A professional musician maintains that many people use the word crescendo incorrectly.A father of two small children says his Indiana family referred to a child's runny nose as a "lamb's legs," as in "We need to wipe the lamb's legs off." --A Way with Words is an independent production supported by its listeners. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.Support the show with your tax deductible donation: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, a special treat: NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz stops by with a quiz about slang and anagrams. Did you know that "A Way with Words" is not produced by NPR or one of the other big radio networks? It's not even produced by a radio station. Our show is produced by a small, nonprofit organization called Wayword, Inc. In the coming year, we hope to bring you even more new episodes. Yep, that's right -- fewer reruns! But we need your help, so please click here and make your tax-deductible contribution today. Remember, it all adds up. Your donation in any amount makes it possible for us to keep producing new episodes.So, OVEN WIG and HANKY OUT! (If you need help with those anagrams, not to worry. Martha unscrambles them at the end of this episode.) --A Way with Words is an independent production supported by its listeners. It receives no financial support from NPR, PRI, PBS nor any radio station.Support the show with your tax deductible donation: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARYWhat's your choice for 2010's word of the year? Mama grizzly? Starwhacker? And who could forget vuvuzela? Martha and Grant discuss the Five-Oh in Hawaii 5-0, and whether the tagline "I approve this message" is grammatical. Also, is the phrase "it is what it is" annoying or merely philosophical?FULL DETAILSWhat's your choice for the word or phrase that best captures the zeitgeist of 2010? Grant shares some of his "Word of the Year" candidates, including refudiate, mama grizzlies, starwhacker, and of course, vuvuzela.Is the TV show Hawaii Five-0 named for Ford Mustang 5.0 engines in police cruisers? No, and it's correctly typed with a zero instead of the letter "O."It is what it is. A new transplant to California has noticed this phrase popping up more and more. Where does it come from? Is it annoying or merely philosophical?Grant talks about another "Word of the Year" contender, Obamacare.Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle called "Word Ladders."After passing by an establishment featuring adult entertainment, an Asheville, N.C., man began wondering: When did the word adult come to refer to "material not suitable for children"? Political candidates end their TV ads with the statement "I approve this message." Is that ungrammatical?The internet abounds with memes. Grant explains that this word was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. More about them at Know Your Meme.http://knowyourmeme.com/Another Word of the Year candidate is immappacy, which is formed by analogy with "innumeracy," and means the inability to understand maps.A La Mesa, Calif., woman thinks the term from 1970s films, jive turkey, deserves reviving."They shot the white girl first." That's how Toni Morrison's novel, "Paradise," begins, and it's a great example of an irresistible first line. Martha shares others sent in by listeners. She also reads from a Michael Cunningham essay about why a first line must be authoritative.http://nyti.ms/cmW78EA reader of The Atlantic magazine is surprised to find that they're not capitalizing letters in headlines the way they used to. Martha argues in favor of the serial comma, citing a recent newspaper caption: "The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall." How's that again?http://bit.ly/98XQ1rA San Diego woman says that when her baby starts crying in another room, her in-laws have a habit of saying, " Another country heard from!" This expression's roots go back to elections in the 19th century, and was originally "another county heard from."--A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARYIn this week's episode, "It was bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen." Martha and Grant discuss their favorite first lines from novels. Also this week, Palmer Housing, beanplating, meeting cute, bad billboard grammar, and what it means when someone says you look like a tree full of owls. And which is correct: another thing coming or another think coming?FULL DETAILSSome novels grab you from the get-go. "I am an invisible man." "Call me Ishmael." "The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting." Martha and Grant discuss some of their favorite first lines.You're falling asleep, then suddenly snap awake. There's a term for that: hypnagogic startle or hypnic jerk.A North Carolina listener reports seeing a billboard that read, "Be Stronger Connected to Your Son." Bad grammar or good advertising?When is your golden birthday? It's when your age and the date match, such as turning 23 years old on the 23rd day of the month.Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle involving inverted M's and W's called "Turn the Worm."    Among many African-Americans, the term Palmer Housing means, "walking with an unusual gait." A screenwriter connects some dots in his own family's history when he asks about the origin.In the film industry, the expression meet cute refers to "an overly precious first encounter between the romantic leads." A man named Kris wants to name his son Qhristopher. Have a problem with that?Grant shares some favorite bad first lines from novels.The hosts tackle a longstanding mystery about the word shoshabong.A favorite quotation from George Eliot: "Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact."Is the correct phrase another think coming or another thing coming?Grant reveals the surprising origin of the term lunatic fringe.The term like a tree full of owls describes someone's appearance. What does it mean, exactly? And why owls?Need a great synonym for "overthinking"? Try beanplating. --A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: 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 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An interview with slang lexicographer Paul Dickson about drinking language and his book "Drunk: the Definitive Drinkers Dictionary."--A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A California college student is campaigning for international scientific authorities to adopt the slang term hella- as an official prefix indicating a huge number. Will he succeed? Also, how to pronounce niche, the regional terms doppick and nixie, the origins of towheaded and frenetic, and a phrase familiar to many African-Americans, but little-known outside that community: I couldn't buy a louse in a wrestling jacket....Whether it's bytes of data or intergalactic distances, humans are accumulating ever more massive amounts of data. But how do we use language to describe such mind-bogglingly huge numbers? There's mega, as in mega-millions, and giga, as in gigabytes, but a California college student is urging international scientific authorities to adopt hella- as a prefix to indicate a huge number: 10 to the 27th power. What are his chances for getting this slang term officially adopted as a unit of measurement?Someone who's flaxen-haired is said to be towheaded. Martha explains what kind of "tow" is involved.Here's a variant of a phrase that's familiar to many African-Americans, but virtually unknown to most others: I'm so broke I couldn't buy a louse a wrestling jacket. What's its meaning and origin? It's also heard "buy a flea a wrestling jacket" or "buy a mosquito a wrestling jacket."Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a special inspiration for this week's puzzle: His wife, author Jennifer Michael Hecht, is one of five judges for the nonfiction category of the National Book Awards. He's crafted a quiz based on some of the 500 titles in contention.http://bit.ly/dmnW2TA veterinarian in Pennsylvania Dutch Country runs into some strange terms. What's wrong with a dog that's doppick, or a cat that's nixie? What does it mean to have your animal dressed?The pronunciation of the word niche has changed over the years.Grant and Martha talk more about the challenges dictionary editors face when trying to define numbers and colors. A descendant of the legendary Hatfield family of Appalachia remembers her grandmother saying, "Wish in one hand and tacky in the other, and see which fills up first." She wonders about the origin of this advice, and what the word tacky means in this case. Here's another: If wishes were buttercake, beggars would bite.The adjectives frenetic and frantic arise from the same linguistic root, but have slightly different meanings.Grant recommends the new book, The Story of OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word by Allan Metcalf.http://bit.ly/9rSSTCWhen we agree to make a decision later, we might say we're going to play it by ear. What's the origin of that phrase?--A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode first aired March 13, 2010.]What do you say if you have guests over and someone in your family has stray food left on the face? In some households, the secret warning is "there's a gazelle on the lawn." But why a gazelle? Also, this week: the "term for a party" to introduce one's new baby to family and friends, the past tense of the verb "to text," and why some people use three syllables when pronouncing "realtor." And did you know there's a language in which it's perfectly normal to "wash your clothes in Barf"?A recent fire in Grant's apartment building has him pondering the role played by "fire" in English idioms.A listener in Washington, D.C., says that his parents taught him that when guests were over for dinner and a family member had specks of food on his face, the polite way to surreptitiously nudge him into wiping it off was to say, "Look! There's a gazelle on the lawn." Is that unique to his family?Martha shares a great automotive Tom Swifty sent in by a listener.What do you call a party that new parents throw to introduce a baby to family and friends? Kiss-and-cry? Try "sip-and-see."Here's the kind of riddle they were telling more than a century ago: "The lazy schoolboy hates my name, yet eats me every day. But those who seek scholastic fame to hunt me never delay."Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a word quiz about words and phrases that have two sets of a double letter. Here's an example with a one-word answer: "The place where you learn 'the three R's.'"A Tallahassee listener hates it when realtors pronounce the name of their profession "REAL-a-tor." Why do they do that?What's the proper past tense of the word "text"? Texted or text?Martha tries to stump Grant with another Tom Swifty, this one nautical in nature.The phrases "Well, I swan!" and "Well, I swannee!" are genteel substitutes for swearing. Where do those phrases come from?Martha shares listener email about linguistic "false friends," those perplexing words in other languages that look like English words, but mean something completely different. A case in point is the detergent popular in the Middle East called "Barf," the name of which happens to be the Farsi word for "snow." Skeptical? Behold: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmada/254689286/ !Dry a grape and it becomes a raisin, dry a plum and it turns into a prune. Why don't we just call them dried grapes and dried plums?Parents sometimes refer to their rascally kids as "honyocks." Where'd we get a word like that?Another riddle: "Why is 'O; the noisiest of all the vowels?"What's the difference between a lexicographer, a linguist, and a wordsmith?--A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: 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 an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices