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

[This episode first aired October 17, 2009.]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.'--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 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

South African English is a rich mix of Afrikaans, English, and indigenous languages such as Zulu and Xhosa. Martha and Grant discuss some favorite terms from that part of the world, including lekker, diski, and ubuntu. Also, where'd we get the term hurt locker and why do we say 'pardon my French' after cursing? What's the difference between supposedly and supposably? And is having a vast vocabulary filled with obscure words really all that important?Looking ahead to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/, Martha and Grant discuss some terms you might hear there. By the way, here's where you can learn that South African diski dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fML326GXJPY.Why do we say 'pardon my French' after cursing?A Dallas listener says he was confused at first when a friend from rural North Dakota reported coming home and finding a moose in his kitchen. Only later did he learn what difference the so-called 'Canadian raising.'Quiz Guy Greg Pliska presents a puzzle about the Oxcar awards, given to fictitious films, the names of which differ by just one letter from the names of the real 2010 Best Picture Oscar nominees. Here's one such plot: 'George Clooney plays a corporate downsizer who avoids close personal relationships by spending his time climbing evergreen trees.'Which adverb is usually correct: supposably or supposedly?What's a round-heeled woman?The 2010 winner of the 'Best Picture' Oscar has a Seattle woman wondering about the term hurt locker. Ben Zimmer wrote about it recently in his column at the Visual Thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2195/ and we talk about it, too.And here's the searing poem by Brian Turner called 'The Hurt Locker http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/brian_turner/the_hurt_locker.shtml120.'The hosts discuss Ammon Shea's recent New York Times Magazine column http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/magazine/14FOB-onlanguage-t.html about whether a large vocabulary filled with obscure and unusual words is all that necessary. A medical transcriptionist who majored in English reports that her co-workers are squabbling over a sentence: 'The patient was brought to the operating room, and laid supine on the operating-room table.'Martha shares a listener's email about a pet's name changing over time. In this case, it's a cat whose name morphed from 'Orange Juice' all the way to 'Lanny.' Martha traces the con-cat-enation of monikers.A Texas nurse says she's often teased about her last name, which happens to be 'Newby.' She wonders if she should change it and how long the term newbie has been around.Is it ever correct to refer to a mustache as a plural?Martha shares another email about the evolution of a pet's name, in this case a dog whose original name was Dumpster. Now the pooch is named after the 19th president of the United States. Sort of.--'A Way with Words' is supported by its listeners. Donate 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.orgPhone:United States 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 10, 2009.]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 2010, Wayword LLC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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