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

[This episode first aired February 20, 2010.]This week, it's the language of politics. Martha and Grant discuss two handy terms describing politicians: "far center" and "snollygoster." Also, a presidential word puzzle, "false friends," "spendthrifts," and a long list of "17th-century insults." So listen up, all you "flouting milksops," "blockish grutnols," and "slubberdegullions"! Grant explains the meaning of the new slang term "far center," and Martha tries to revive an antiquated term meaning "a corrupt politician," "snollygoster."Careful about how you spend your money? Then you're said to be "thrifty." So why is someone who isn't frugal called a "spendthrift"?"Pommy" is an often derogatory nickname used by Australians for the English. Does it come from an acronym for either "Prisoner of Mother England" or "Prisoner of Her Majesty"? The more likely story has to do with "sunburn and pomegranates."An older woman with a knack for finding older men to date? That's what you call someone with excellent "graydar."Speaking of politics, Quiz Guy Greg Pliska presents a puzzle featuring the names of U.S. presidents.Beware of "false friends," those words that don't translate the way you'd expect. For example, the word "gift" in German means "poison," and the Spanish word "tuna" means "the fruit of the prickly pear cactus." These tricky lookalikes are also called "faux amis."Is the term "refer back" redundant? Martha reports that listeners have been trying to help a caller http://www.waywordradio.org/down-a-chimney-up/ remember a word for someone who's exceptionally good at packing things in a confined space. She thinks she's found a winner: "stevedore."To keep something "at bay" means to maintain a safe distance from it. But does this expression derive from an old practice of using bay leaves to ward off pestilence?A Tallahassee caller wonders about the name for "terms that are capitalized in the middle," like MasterCard and FedEx. Grant explains that they're commonly called "CamelCase," not to be confused with "Studly Caps."Grant shares some slang he's found while exploring the game of "Skee-Ball," including to "hit the hundo."The hosts and a listener in Grand Rapids, Michigan, trade some 17th-century insults. For more, check out these references: Gargantua http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gargantua/Chapter_XXV and George Albert Nicholson's English Words With Native Roots And With Greek, Latin, Or Romance Suffixes .--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

[This episode first aired February 13, 2010.]   Whoever wrote "The Book of Love" neglected to include the handy emoticon <3, which looks like a heart if you turn your head sideways. Grant and Martha talk about how that bit of affectionate shorthand can function as a verb, and about the antiquated words for kiss, "osculate" and "exosculate."   A Houston woman says her family makes fun of her for saying "waste not, want not." Does this proverb make literal sense?   BTDubs, a San Diego caller notices that more of her co-workers are "talking in text," saying things like "BRB" instead of "be right back" or "JK" instead of "just kidding!" Is it a passing fad, or a new way of speaking?   Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah... MmmmmWAH! Martha shares the "German verb that means to plant one last kiss" in a series of them.   Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a fill-in-the-blank limerick puzzle, including:   There was once a coed named Clapper In psychology class quite a napper. But her Freudian dreams Were so classic it seems That now she's a __________________.   "I feel more like I do now than I did a while ago." The hosts discuss that and other examples of self-referential humor, like "Before I begin speaking, I'd like to say something."   A woman having an affair with a married man is a mistress. So what's the word for an unmarried man who's having an affair with a married woman? Consort? Leman?   Martha shares the famous passage from the poem by Catullus http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e5.htmthat begins, "Give me a thousand kisses..." Grant reads an excerpt from the 1883 volume, "The Love Poems of Louis Barnaval," by Charles de Kay http://bit.ly/aqMZ0G .   What's the difference between a second cousin and a cousin once removed? Here's a helpful chart from Genealogy.com http://www.genealogy.com/16_cousn.html.   What did the boy volcano say to the girl volcano?   A caller from Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, wonders about the origin of "knock on wood." The hosts do, too. More about the unusual language of Ocracoke here http://www.waywordradio.org/how-about-a-game-of-meehonkey/.   What's a "scissorbill"? A bird? A hog? And how did its name get transferred to refer to anyone who's lazy or ineffectual?   --   A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: http://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 and Canada 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 Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Most Beautiful Words in the English Language: "Cellar Door"?It's been said that the most beautiful combination of words in English is "cellar door." But why? By the way, after this caller raised the question, Grant did even more digging on the topic. The result: He wrote a whole article about it that appeared in The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/bkqwpg--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

Is it y'all's? Y'alls? Y'alls's? What do all ya'll think?--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

A Texas listener came across the word "Boche" in a biography of a French statesman, and wants to know: What does it mean, exactly?--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

[This episode first aired December 5, 2009.]In high school, no one thinks twice about cheering for the Fighting Trojans or the Tigers. But what about the Hickman Kewpies http://service.columbia.k12.mo.us/hhs/about/? Or the Maryville Spoofhounds http://www.maryville.k12.mo.us/? Martha and Grant talk about some of the odder names for school athletic teams. Also, in this episode: If you're queasy, are you "nauseous" or "nauseated"? How do you pronounce the word "sorry"? And why do conservative Democrats call themselves "Blue Dogs"?Grant and Martha discuss strange names for high school sports teams. Know another example? Talk about it in the forum http://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/.How do you pronounce the word "sorry"? SORE-ee? SAHR-ee? A Connecticut woman says her family pronounces this word four different ways, and is hoping her way is correct.Is there a name for those vocal sound we make when shrugging our shoulders or wordlessly affirming something with an "mm-hm"? Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle called "There's An App For That." The challenge is to guess what new word is formed by tacking the letters A-P-P on to another one. For example, what new word appears when you add A-P-P to the word that means "a soothing balm or salve." How'd we get the term "colorblind," and when it did come to be mean "indifferent to race"? "Really???" Really! A college student in Provo, Utah, says he's hearing this expression of sarcastic incredulity more and more—even catching himself saying this to his cellphone when it dropped a call. He suspects it comes from "Saturday Night Live." Does it? Really? Here's a great example of that show's use of the expression. A Connecticut cop says his dad, a retired professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, has been reading his son's police reports. They disagree about whether "complainant" is a legitimate word, or whether it should be "complainer."Here's a riddle: "I'm weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I'll make it lighter. What am I?" Martha has the answer.Grant shares online sites that can help you solve a difficult crossword puzzle"or anagram words to help you get the highest scores in Scrabble. WordNavigator http://wordnavigator.com/ and Wordsmith.org's anagram server http://wordsmith.org/anagram/.A veteranian says her colleague insists that "nauseous" means "contagious." Is that right? And if you're queasy, are you "nauseous" or "nauseated"?A Burlington, Vt. man says his mother and grandmother used the expression "journey proud" to denote being restless, nervous, or excited, especially on the eve of an upcoming trip."I'll be there at three-ish." "That shirt is bluish." "It wasn't a house—but it was house-ish." OK, but what in the world does "ish" mean, exactly?Conservative Democrats are sometimes called "Blue Dog Democrats." Grant explains why. Check out the work of George Rodrigue http://www.georgerodrigue.com/, the Blue Dog artist.--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

How do you pronounce this word that means someone's "strong suit"? And what does it have to do with fencing?--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

Um, are you, like, one of those people who, um, get, like, really annoyed, by, um, you know, like, um, lots of filler words in, you know, like, conversation? If it's any comfort, there's a great term for this. Can you say "embololalia"? --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

The first of two podcasts this week includes a special message to "A Way with Words" podcast listeners. Also, Martha answers a listener's email about the term "sea change." Or is it "C change"?--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

Anagrams, rebuses, cryptograms -- Martha and Grant swap stories about the games that first made them realize that playing with words and letters can be fun. Also this week, what's a jitney supper and where do you eat graveyard stew? The hosts explain the origin of the term hang fire and why Alaskans sound like they're from the Midwest, and take on a debate about whether an egregious falsehood is a bald-faced lie or a bold-faced lie.What games first made you realize that words and letters make great playthings? Martha describes puzzling, as a child, over the odd combination of letters, F-U-N-E-X, until she finally figured out the joke. Grant talks about discovering anagrams as a youngster, and how word puzzles in the newspaper became a daily ritual.An office worker in Indianapolis is mystified when a British colleague sends an email telling her to hang fire. It has to do with faulty firearms. "Call up to 24 hours in advance to make a reservation." Do those instructions mean you can call until 24 hours before the deadline, or that you should call within 24 hours of it? When a San Diego listener assumed it was the former, she was surprised to be wrong. Did you know the POTUS (President of the United States) has a BOTUS? Grant explains what a BOTUS is.Quiz Guy Greg Pliska's word game this week is "Name Dropping." The answer for each set of clues will be a word that has a common first name hidden somewhere in it; when that name's removed, the remaining letters spell a new word. For example, the first clue is "one of the seven deadly sins," the second is "the grain consumed by one-fifth of the world's inhabitants." Subtract the latter from the former, and you get a woman's name.A Charlottesville, Virginia, caller says that when she was a child and recovering from an illness, her mother fed her a kind of milk toast she called graveyard stew. Is that strange name unique to her family?During the health care debate in Congress, there was lots of talk about an up-or-down vote. A Montana listener finds this expression annoying. What's wrong with plain old "vote"?In youth slang, "totes" is short for "totally." Grant talks about new, lengthened version of this slang shortening.A Carlsbad, California, couple has a running debate over whether an egregious whopper is correctly called a bold-faced lie or a bald-faced lie.The Library of Congress is archiving the entire content of Twitter. Grant explains why that's a gold mine for language researchers like David Bamman at Tufts University. You can see some of the results Bamman's compiled at Lexicalist.com.http://www.lexicalist.com/What do you eat at a jitney supper? Jitney?Why do people from Alaska sound like they're from the Midwest?A caller who grew up in Arkansas says his mother used a colorful expression instead of "mind your own business," which was "tend to your own rat-killing."--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