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

This week, it's backhanded phrases, those snarky remarks that come sugar-coated in politeness, like "How nice for you," "Oh, interesting!" and the mother of all thinly veiled criticism, "Bless her heart." Also this week, free reign vs. free rein, the origin of the one-finger salute, and what it means if a Frenchman has big ankles. And "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings stops by to try his hand at a slang quiz.You've been on the receiving end of backhanded phrases, and admit it, you've used them, too. A discussion on Ask Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/133910/Bless-your-heart-and-other-backhanded-phrases prompts Grant and Martha to talk about the ways people use sugar-coated snark. By the way, if you want a fancy word for veiled criticisms like "bless her heart" and "let me know how that works out," it's "charientism," from a Greek word that means "the expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner."Is it free reign or free rein? Ruling or riding?The "back forty" refers to a remote area of a large piece of land. Grant has the origin of that phrase.What do English bowmen, the French, and lopped-off digits have to do with the classic middle-finger insult? Absolutely nothing. A San Diego truck driver wonders about the true origin of the one-finger salute. There's a great debunking of the English archers story here: http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp.Quiz Guy John Chaneski says he's been visiting some "niche" high schools, all of which have the word "High" in them, maybe in reverse of a standard phrase. How about this one: "The school where they study phantoms, ghosts, and apparitions." That would be "Spirits High."A caller who grew up in Australia has a question about wedding-invitation etiquette in the U.S. She wonders: Shouldn't an invitation refer to a daughter's "marriage with" the groom rather than a "marriage to" him?A man who works nights in a mortuary in Brookings, Oregon is curious about the origin of--what else?--"graveyard shift." Quick, picture a berry: Is it blue? Red? Then where'd we get the English expression "brown as a berry"?It's "Slang for $500." All-time "Jeopardy!" Champion Ken Jennings tackles his next logical challenge, the "A Way with Words" slang quiz. Ken puzzles over the meaning of "brummagem" and "pluck of a pig," and tries to guess an usual meaning for the term daylight. More about Ken at his website, www.ken-jennings.com http://www.ken-jennings.com/index.html.In many neighborhoods, the night before Halloween is the night when pranksters run around wreaking all kinds of mischief--toilet-papering houses, spraying windows with shaving cream, ringing doorbells and then running away. A Connecticut woman remembers calling that night "Goosey Night," and is surprised when friends call it "Mischief Night." In fact, that prankfest goes by lots of other names, including "Corn Night," "Picket Night," and "Devil Night."In English, we say that someone who's egotistical has a "big head." But in French, according to a caller, the person is said to have "big ankles." Why ankles?Grant shares a "quirklum." --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

Who was that masked man? Was it the Barefoot Bandit, the Mummy Bandit, or perhaps the Botox Bandit? Or maybe it was the Bad-Breath Bandit? The hosts discuss the wacky names that law enforcement officers give to suspects. Also, what's a pickle button? Why do we say be there or be square? And what does the word seditty mean in the African-American community?A news story about the Ho-Hum Bandit has Grant musing about the odd names that law enforcement officers give to criminals at large, usually based on their appearance or behavior, like the Barefoot Bandit, the Mummy Bandit. Or how about the Bad Breath Bandit?Where do we get the phrase be there or be square?What's seditty? Many African-Americans use this term, also spelled saddidy, to mean "stuck-up." A caller's heard it all his life, and is curious about the word.Grant has a riddle: "I never was, am always to be, no one ever saw me or ever will, and yet I am the confidence of all to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?"Quiz Guy Greg Pliska offers a colorful variation on his ever-popular "Odd Man Out" puzzle. In this series, for example, which one doesn't belong: Imperial, Shasta, Kings, and Orange. A caller from the coastal town of La Jolla, California, is sure he's heard a word for bright pools of silver light that form on the surface of the ocean when sunbeams poke down through cloud cover. Albedo http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/albedo, maybe? Coruscation http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coruscation? How about sunglade http://books.google.com/books?id=93UKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA341&dq=sunglade&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&ei=2nflS7DHH4amlQSBwcjkCQ&cd=15#v=onepage&q=sunglade&f=false?Why in the world would two people part from each other saying, "Abyssinia!" "Ethiopia!"? The hosts clear up the mystery.Martha shares a puzzle sent in by a listener: "What's the longest word typed on the left hand's half of the keyboard?" Hint: It's the plural of a now-outmoded occupational term.A lagniappe is a little something extra that a merchant might toss in for a customer, like a complimentary ball-point pen. What's the origin of that word?Grant argues that new commercial categories of literature, which include poop fiction, chick lit, K-mart realism, and tart noir resemble the kind of fracturing that already occurred in the music world. Here's the blog entry that got him started http://thewritingresource.net/2010/04/06/weekly-vocab-builder-new-lit-types/.What exactly do you mean when you use the words couple, few, and several? Do they conjure specific numbers? The hosts disagree. A retired Air Force officer says he's never wondered until recently why the button that pilots push to drop bombs is called the pickle button, and to "pickle off" the bomb means to drop it.Grant reveals another riddle: It's the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place. What is it?A Scrabble game sparks a debate between a college student and her English-teacher sister. Which is correct: stupider or more stupid?--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 Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[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