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

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"?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. Twitter @wayword. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Write it Right One hundred years ago, American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce published a curmudgeonly book of writing advice called Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults.   In her new book, Boston Globe language columnist Jan Freeman explains where Bierce got his ideas about language, how his grammatical convictions compared with those of his contemporaries, and what they teach us about English today. The book is Ambrose Bierce's Write It Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised, and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers. Recently, Freeman talked with Grant about Bierce and his cranky advice for speaking and writing well. http://www.amazon.com/Ambrose-Bierces-Write-Right-21st-Century/dp/0802717683 You can read much more by Jan Freeman (and we recommend that you do) in the archives of her columns in the Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/jan_freeman/ -- "A Way with Words" is made of paper: drop a few bills in the donation jar today: http://www.waywordradio.org/donate/ . Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: 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://waywordradio Copyright 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know that grammatical 'rule' about not ending a sentence with a preposition? Well, who ever decided finishing off a sentence like that is a bad thing? (Personally, we think it's one of the silliest things anyone ever came up with.)In his new book, The Lexicographer's Dilemma The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to South Park, literary historian Jack Lynch offers a lively narrative about the evolution of such rules, starting in the 17th century, when grammar books were more like self-help guides for the upwardly mobile. He introduces us to the flesh-and-blood (and almost always quirky) grammarians and dictionary editors who created and popularized traditional rules that people still argue about today.Recently Lynch talked with Martha about why and how some of those rules came to be. http://www.amazon.com/Lexicographers-Dilemma-Evolution-English-Shakespeare/dp/0802717004/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_1Incidentally, Lynch, an associate professor of English at Rutgers University, has published his own helpful guide to grammar and usage online.http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/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) 929-9673 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://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant interviews 'Jeopardy!' champion Ken Jennings about the grueling nature of TV quiz shows, the fine art of writing trivia questions, the special challenges of competing in European quiz contests, and how it feels to answer incorrectly. You can hear him try to puzzle out the answer to our slang quiz in this episode. http://www.waywordradio.org/bless-your-heart/ Find out more about Ken here. http://www.ken-jennings.com/index.html -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode originally aired February 9, 2008.] In this week's episode: Just how far back could you go and still understand the English people were speaking? We crank up our trusty time machine to find out. Hint: You'd probably have a tough time getting around in the eighth century, when English poetry looked like: 'Hwaet we gardena in geardagum...' Speaking of the more recent past: When you played hide-and-seek as a child, did you yell 'Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free'? Or 'Ally Ally in Free'? Or maybe 'Ally Ally Ump Free'? 'Ole Ole Olsen Free'? Or something else? A caller in Montevideo, Uruguay, is curious about the origin of such nonsensical phrases. It's the Moby Dick of etymology: 'Where do we get the phrase the whole nine yards?' A pediatrician in North Carolina wonders if it derives from a World War II phrase involving 'nine yards' of ammunition. Grant and Martha discuss the many theories about this expression. Martha and Grant discuss 'squeejawed' and other strange terms that mean 'crooked,' or 'askew,' including 'slanchwise,' 'whompy-jawed,' 'lopper-jawed,' 'antigogglin,' 'sigogglin,' and 'catawampus.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska presents a letter game called 'Dandy Dyads.' A woman wonders about a phrase from her past: 'I'm going to beat you like a red-headed stepchild.' Martha and Grant discuss 'gingerism,' or prejudice against redheads. A New York babysitter says the English language needs a word to replace the clunky phrase, 'the kids I babysit.' The hosts try to help her find one. 'Charges'? 'Child associates'? 'Padawans'? This week's 'Slang This!' contestant, a professor of medieval history at the University of Santa Cruz, tries to guess the meaning of the slang terms 'quizzam' and 'snirt.' A native speaker of Spanish has a hard time with prepositions in English. (Why do we say that someone's 'on my mind' but 'in my heart'? A listener in York, England wonders about the word 'grockles,' a derogatory term for tourists. On an earlier episode we talked about regional differences involving the words 'dinner' and 'supper,' prompting a whole smorgasbord of responses. Grant reads a few of them on the air. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode first aired January 12, 2008.] In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss not-to-be-believed articles about language from the satirical newspaper The Onion, including one headlined 'Underfunded Schools Forced to Cut Past Tense from Language Programs.' By the way, did you ever notice how ONION is ZO-ZO if you tilt your head to the right? A caller has a friendly disagreement with a pal: Is the expression 'tide me over' or 'tie me over'? Hint: The answer she gets should tide her over. If a dictator dictates, and an aviator aviates, then does a commentator 'commentate'? A caller complains that this last word gives him the willies. Does an alligator alligate? A middle-schooler who's reading 'Anne of Green Gables' is puzzled by a mention of 'breakfast, dinner, and supper.' She wants to know if the words 'dinner' and 'lunch' really interchangeable. The fur flies when Greg Pliska unleashes a word puzzle involving the names of animals. Also speaking of animals, an immigrant from India recounts his confusion the first time he heard the expression 'I'm going to go see a man about a horse.' How in did that become a euphemism for 'I'm going to go to the bathroom'? A former West Virginian reports that she grew up hearing a strange word: 'charny.' In her part of the country, she says, it means 'dirty' or 'filthy,' and she always heard it pronounced 'chee-YAR-nee.' This week's Slang This! contestant, a comic-book illustrator from Providence, R.I., tries to guess the meaning of the expressions 'hat-catcher' and 'to go shucks.' What IS the longest word in the English language? 'Antidisestablishmentarianism'? 'Floccinaucinihilipilification'? Or 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,' maybe? Martha and Grant discuss such sesquipedalian contenders for the title of Longest English Word. Where do you put those exclamation points and question marksâdo they go inside or outside the quotation marks? Can you say, 'We have the answer!'? Confused about whether 'biweekly' means 'twice a week' or 'twice a month'? Martha rants about why the using the words 'biweekly' and 'bimonthly' at all is a bad idea, period. Grant shares listener email about the origin and meaning of the term 'g-job.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enough about the 'Word of the Year.' How about the 'Word of the Decade'? Bailout? Google? Martha and Grant discuss some candidates. Also in this episode, does speaking a different language make you feel different emotion'? What did Don Draper on 'Mad Men' mean when he called Betty a 'Main Line brat'? And why do we talk about 'throwing someone under the bus'? Where'd we get the expression 'mind your p's and q's'? A Barcelona native wants help understanding exactly what it means, and shares a few other English idioms that caught her up short. A die-hard fan of television's 'Mad Men' is puzzled when Don calls Betty a 'Main Line brat.' Grant's been collecting contenders for 2009's 'Word of the Year,' including 'Dracula sneeze,' 'Government Motors,' and...'unumbium'? Quiz Guy John Chaneski sums up the events of 2009 in the form of limericks, all with a blank to be filled. Here's one: NASA really put on a great show A new lunar crater did blow To the glee of mankind The rocket did find That the moon contains much __________. A dogsledder in Vermont wonders why he and his fellow mushers direct their furry packs by shouting 'gee' for 'right' and 'haw' for 'left.' If you ask a salesclerk for change in the form of a 'case quarter,' what are you asking for? An upstate New York woman says her British husband makes fun of her for saying 'lookit!' Does speaking a particular language make you feel certain emotions? The hosts talk about a blog post http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/a-language-of-smiles/ by evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson musing about whether this might be true. A woman from Indianapolis is trying to convince her grandmother that it's okay for restaurant servers to refer to both male and female customers as you guys. Grandma says it's sexist. Our caller maintains it's fine, drawing an analogy with Spanish, where the masculine pronoun 'ellos' encompasses both sexes. Why do we describe the sudden abandonment of someone as 'throwing him under the bus'? A Dallas man says his grandmother used to carry around washcloth a plastic bag in her purse. When he and his siblings would get their hands dirty, she'd say to them, 'Show me your 'paddywackers,''' and they'd hold out their hands to be wiped clean. He wonders if she made up the word 'paddywhacker.' Two more expressions that characterized 2009: 'El Stiffo' and 'drive like a Cullen.' -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[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 with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette. You may remember the call we had from Tony in Encinitas, California. He was curious about the term for an unusual hazing ritual: My dad woke us up one night, about 8 o'clock. He said don't be alarmed. There's going to be gunfire and a lot of noise, and there's going to be a lot of people in the house and there's going to be a party. This is probably late spring. And lo and behold, next thing we knew there were trucks driving up and women coming in with food and we heard people shooting off guns and men doing what men do. It was a giant party. And I said, 'Daddy what is this?' He said, 'It's a shivaree.' Well, it turns out that shivarees aren't that unusual after all. Or at least, a lot of you have had experiences with these raucous surprise parties for newlyweds. Amanda from Livingston, Montana says that shivarees were quite common when she was growing up in rural western South Dakota in 1960's and 70's. 'They usually took place long enough after the wedding that the happy couple had let down their guard,' she writes. 'The revelers would turn up late in the evening in a noisy caravan and take over the house, rousing the hosts out of bed. Good-natured chaos ensued; shortsheeting beds, sprinkling cornflakes in the beds, and tearing the labels off the canned goods in the cupboards while the hosts were distracted by entertaining the crowd. It was a fun, harmless way to welcome the new couple into the community of adults.' Guess that's one way to do it. We got another email from John. He's a dairy farmer in Eleva, Wisconsin. At the age of 40, John took his sweetheart took a trip to Colorado. While there, they ended up getting married. 'Upon our return,' he writes, 'as news of our marriage leaked out, the farming community felt that they were deprived of a party. And thus plans for a shivaree were hatched. 'It happened in the early evening, after the milking chores had been done, on the night of a blue moon in August, 1985. A stream of pick-up trucks and cars paraded up our 3/4 mile-long driveway. In the back of some trucks were men shooting guns. In another, two men held a large lumber mill saw blade between them on a piece of pipe, striking it as if it were a large cymbal. 'After the initial shock wore off, I asked what was expected of me. The reply was that a quick trip to town was in order for cold beer for the men who lounged outside in the cool summer night air. Meanwhile the women took over the house and set up a buffet meal. 'The guests provided everything, from the table cloth, food service ware, napkins, coffee pot ready to plug in, food of all sort, and gifts to celebrate our marriage. After a memorable evening the women cleaned up and took with them all trash and evidence of the event. 'And again, Evelyn and I were left in the splendid evening of a blue moon in Wisconsin, our hearts filled with gratitude for the warmth and camaraderie of a small farming community.' Not to mention for the women doing all the cooking and cleaning, right? Well, we appreciate the warmth and camaraderie of our virtual community of language lovers, and we're glad you're a part of it. We hope you'll drop us at line any you have language on your mind. That address is words@waywordradio.org. Or pop by our discussion forum. That's at waywordradio.org/discussion. -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you ever use a tilly ticket in the bathroom? Over the years, we've answered lots of your questions about words and phrases that have to do with going to the bathroom. We've talked about euphemisms like I have to go see a man about a horse. Or that Victorian-era locution, I'm going to go pluck a rose. Or my favorite: I'm going to visit Miss White. We've also talked about the origin of biffy, a word for outdoor facilities. And we discussed how the word john may have become synonymous with that bathroom destination. But recently we received an email that has me puzzled. It's from Marge in Chula Vista, California. She writes: 'My brother and I have been reminiscing about our childhood, spent in an old house in New Hampshire, during World War II.  My mother always called toilet paper Tilly Tickets.' She continues: 'We don't have a clue where that expression came from.  Our memory was that when we were out of Tilly Tickets, we used the old scratchy patterns -- the kind used for sewing.' Eeeeuw. Well, her question made me squirm, and not just at the thought of using an old McCall's pattern. I have to admit I'm stumped. 'Tilly Tickets'? So I'm hoping you can help. Ever hear toilet paper called 'Tilly Tickets'? If so, did you ever hear a story to explain that name? Let us know. Our email address is words@waywordradio.org. One more thing: I want to share something I discovered while trying to find out about Tilly Tickets. You may recall that we've talked about the word lagniappe.  It's a term you're more likely to hear in the Gulf States, especially in southern Louisiana. It means 'a little something extra,' a little freebie that a vendor tosses in. A free keychain from your mechanic, or a calendar from a realtor--those are lagniappes. Well, it turns out that in Ireland, and parts of Newfoundland, they don't call it a lagniappe. They call it a tilly. I don't think this type of tilly has anything to do with Tilly Tickets. Just a little extra something I thought I'd toss in. Anyway, drop us a line if you know anything about Tilly Tickets. Hope you enjoyed this little tilly. If you like what you hear and learn, please consider a donation to our program. Thank you! -- Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time: Email: words@waywordradio.org Phone: United States toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673 London +44 20 7193 2113 Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771 Site: http://waywordradio.org. Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/ Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/ Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/ Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2009, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices