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

Many of the world's languages apparently derived from a prehistoric common ancestor known as Indo-European. But since no one ever wrote down a word of it, how do we know what it was like? -- 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 October 4, 2008.] Proverbs pack great truths into a few well-chosen words, no matter which language you speak. Check out this one from Belize: 'Don't call the alligator a big-mouth till you have crossed the river.' And this truism from Zanzibar: 'When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers.' Martha and Grant discuss a new paremiography--a collection of proverbs--from around the world. A woman from Cape Cod is looking for a polite word that means the current wife of my ex-husband. She's thinking about 'cur-wife,' but somehow that doesn't quite work. Neither does the phrase 'that poor woman.' The hosts try to help her come up with other possibilities. 'It's raining, it's pouring.' But what exactly is the 'it' that's doing all that raining and pouring? This question from a caller prompts Grant to explain what linguists mean when they talk about the 'weather it.' Hint: It depends on what the meaning of 'it' is. Your eyetooth is located directly beneath your eye. But is that why they're called eyeteeth? A Boston caller would give her eyeteeth to know. Okay, not really, but she did want an answer to this question. Quiz Guy John Chaneski invites Grant and Martha to busta rhyme with a word puzzle called Rhyme Groups. You've seen people indicate emphasis by putting a period after each of several words, and capitalizing the first letter of each word. A Michigan listener wonders how this stylistic trick arose. Her question was prompted by this description of French model-turned-presidential-spouse Carla Bruni: 'She's got a cashmere voice and a killer body. Plays decent guitar and writes her own lyrics. Can hold her own with queens and statesmen. She. Must. Be. Stopped.' Jealous much? Do you want to get down? Ask that in parts of Louisiana, and people know you're not inquiring whether they care to dance, you're asking if they want to get out of a car. A former Louisianan who grew up using the expression that way wonders if it's French-inspired. The hosts proceed to use the phrase 'get down' so much they end up with a dreadful K.C. and the Sunshine Band earworm. Which is correct for describing a close family resemblance: spittin' image or spit and image? Grant and Martha discuss the possible origins of these expressions, including a recent hypothesis that's sure to surprise. In this week's episode of Slang This!, Dave Dickerson from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the terms cowboy up and money bomb. If you've used the word sickly too many times in a paragraph and need a synonym, there's always dauncy, also spelled donsie and dauncy. Grant explains the origin of this queasy-sounding word. A Navy man stationed in Hawaii phones to settle a dispute over the difference between acronyms and initialisms. Here's hoping he didn't go AWOL to make the call. Is English is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket? A Wisconsin grandmother thinks so, particularly because of all the ums and you knows she hears in everyday speech. The hosts discuss these so-called disfluencies, including how to avoid them and how to keep other people's disfluencies from grating on your nerves. We leave you with a couple other proverbs translated into English. They're from David Crystal's paremiography, As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbs are like butterflies; some are caught and some fly away. (Germany) Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself. (China) -- 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 Sept. 27, 2009.] OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into a nation of illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, 'Txting: The Gr8 Db8,' author David Crystal offers a different perspective. The book's surprising message is one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it! The French phrase 'au jus' means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with 'au jus sauce.' A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer fresh from the 'Waiter, There's a Redundancy in My Soup!' Department. In medical parlance, your big toe is your 'hallux.' But what about the other four? Do they have anatomical names as well? A San Diego man who hurt the toe next to his big toe is tired of referring to his injured digit as 'the toe next to my big toe,' and wants the proper medical term. How does 'porcellus domi' grab you? Prehensily? Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a letter-shaving game called 'Curtailments.' In this game, Grant and Martha leave everything on the floor. A caller from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was puzzled when she moved there and locals asked, 'What's your name from home?' meaning, 'What's your maiden name?' The community has a strong Polish heritage, and she wonders if there's a connection. It's a good hunch, and Martha explains why. Say you have a particularly rambunctious child. Okay, a little hellion. Is it proper to describe the little devil as a 'holy terror'? Or might it be more correct and more logical to call him an 'unholy terror'? A Los Angeles caller thinks it's the latter. If you've flown from Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport recently, you may have noticed an odd but official-looking sign that reads: 'RECOMBOBULATION AREA.' A caller from Madison was discombobulated to see it, then started wondering about the roots of such words. See if it does the same for you here: http://tinyurl.com/4mc8dm The real problem with texting isn't how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you're trying to have a conversation than watching your companion's eyes flitting to his phone when he sees that a text message just arrived? The hosts discuss the need for a new text-messaging etiquette. Let's say that you're getting 'diesel therapy' at 'o-dark-thirty.' What are you getting and when are you getting it? A New Jersey contestant from the National Puzzlers' League learns the meaning of these terms in this week's slang quiz. What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like 'motel' from 'motor' and 'hotel'? A listener says his term for them is 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cup words,' after the old commercial: 'You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter in my chocolate!' But he wonders if there's another, more established term. The hosts introduce him to the word 'portmanteau.' When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. That's all for this week. L8r! -- 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 June 6, 2009.] Has the age of email led to an outbreak of exclamation marks? Do women use them more than men? Also, is there a word for the odd feeling when you listen to a radio personality for years, then discover that they look nothing like your mental picture of them? And what's the origin of the verb 'to bogart'? Writing in the 'Guardian,' Stuart Jeffries contends that our email boxes are being infested with exclamation marks , known as 'bangs' or 'bangers' (without mash) to some people. Jacob Rubin also wrote on the subject a couple of years ago in Slate. If you tell a buddy, 'Don't bogart that joint,' you're telling him not to hog the marijuana cigarette. Ahem. We know phrase was popularized in the film 'Easy Rider' (performed by The Fraternity of Man ) but does it have anything to do with Humphrey Bogart? You know that odd feeling when you've listened to a radio personality for years, but when you finally meet them, they look nothing like you'd imagined? Is there a word for that weird disconnect? 'Radiofreude,' maybe? Martha shares what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard had to say about exclamation marks. Short version: Neither is a fan. Quiz Guys John Chaneski and Greg Pliska lead a couple of rounds of 'Chain Reaction,' a word game that's great for parties and long car rides. Two players try to make a third one guess the word that the other two are thinking of. The trick is that they have to give alternating one-word clues to build a sentence. Hilarity ensues. Hillary sues. Why do some people refer to a couch or a sofa as a 'davenport'? How should you pronounce the word 'gala' ? Grant reports some etymological news: A recent article in the journal American Speech suggests a new source for the term that means 'drunk,' 'blotto.' If you're in New Zealand and are told to 'rattle your dags,' you'd better get a move on. Literally, though, the expression has to do with sheep butts. Martha reviews the new book, 'Dreaming in Hindi,' by Katherine Russell Rich , a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to interview experts about the mechanics of second-language acquisition and how it affects the brain. Publisher's Weekly has an interview with Rich . Grant discusses an article about what happens to the mother tongue voice when first-language speakers of indigenous languages in India learn English and then spend years focused on speaking and writing in their adopted tongue. How did the word 'pigeonhole' come to mean 'classify' or 'categorize'? An employee who gets a great termination package is said to leave the company with a 'golden parachute.' Where'd that term come from? A caller is adamant honorifics should be used to address the President of the United States, as in 'President Obama,' never 'Mr. Obama.' He thinks it's disrespectful and divisive when news organizations use 'Mr.' -- 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 16, 2009.] Pickle, baboon, cupcake, snorkel, pumpkin, Kalamazoo -- let's face it, some words are just plain funny. But what makes some words funnier than others? Martha and Grant consider this question with an assist from Neil Simon's play (and movie) 'The Sunshine Boys.' Also in this episode: 'There are three words in the English language that end in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.' The hosts explain how this 'aggravating riddle' works -- and doesn't work. And what's a 'shivaree'? Do you know this diabolical riddle? 'There are three words in the English language that 'end in -gry.' Angry and hungry are two of them. What's the third?' The hosts explain that the answer's not as simple as you might think . Does the expression 'to boot,' as in 'I'll sell you this Hummer and throw in a free tank of gas to boot,' have anything to do with booting up a computer? In an earlier episode, the hosts discussed the phrase 'all over it like a duck on a junebug' , which refers to doing something with great eagerness. Martha shares an email from a Wisconsin listener who's watched plenty of ducks interact with junebugs and offers a vivid description of what that looks like. In this week's puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski is looking for phrases in which the only vowel is the letter A. Try this clue: 'This person said, 'I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant, sometimes it is fearful, but nevertheless, it is inevitable.' Hint: The speaker's first name is the same as one of this show's hosts. What do you call the wheeled contraption that you push around the grocery store? Shopping cart? Shopping carriage? Shopping wagon? Buggy? A former Kentuckian wonders if anyone besides her calls them 'bascarts.' Check out this dialect map featuring these and other names for this device. One definition of a 'shivaree' is 'a compliment extended to every married couple made up of beating tin pans, blowing horns, ringing cowbells, playing horse fiddles, caterwauling, and in fine, the use of every disagreeable sound to make the night hideous.' Also spelled 'charivari,' this old-fashioned form of hazing newlyweds often involved interrupting them in the middle of the night with a raucous party. A former Hoosier calls to discuss boyhood memories of a shivaree and wonders about the source of this term. How do you 'pronounce February'? Is it FEB-roo-air-ee or FEB-yew-air-ee? A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it 'a scissors' or 'a pair of scissors'? Grant recommends a couple of favorite children's books by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben: 'Baboon' and 'The Night Worker' . Martha explains the story behind the expression 'richer than Bim Gump.' Find out more about the long-running comic strip that inspired it here . The names Australia and Austria are awfully similar. Is it a coincidence? The H1N1 virus has a lot of people wondering about pandemics vs. epidemics. Grant explains the difference. Martha explains the origin of the word 'coin,' as in 'to coin a phrase.' -- 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

Does it bug you when people talk about themselves in the third person? A caller finds herself mightily annoyed by this habit, which she observes especially among politicians and celebrities. There's a word for the practice of referring to oneself in the third person: illeism. -- 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 2, 2009.] In this downbeat economy, some advertisers are reaching for upbeat language. Take the new Quaker Oats catchphrase, 'Go humans go,' or Coca-Cola's current slogan, 'Open happiness.' Martha and Grant discuss whether chirpy, happy ad copy can go too far. Also this week, why New Yorkers insist they 'stand on line' instead of in line. And who is 'William Trembletoes'? And what's a 'zerbert'? (The title of this post is taken from a routine by comedian Bill Hicks .) Here's a New York Times article about perky ad copy in a sluggish economy. 'William Trembletoes, he's a good fisherman. Catches hens, puts 'em in the pen...' If you recited this rhyme growing up, you're probably tapping your foot along with its singsong cadences right now. The rhyme accompanied a children's game, and is the source, by the way, of the title of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. A caller who played the game as a child wonders if its roots lie in her Cajun heritage. It's an easy way to separate New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers: 'Do you stand on line or in line?' A Midwesterner who relocated to the Big Apple wants to know why people there are adamant about waiting on line instead of in line. See a map showing the dispersal of both forms across the U.S. . Quiz Guy John Chaneski conducts a word puzzle involving musical instruments hidden in various sentences. Try this one: 'My cousin is a Santa Monica zookeeper whose specialty is hummingbirds.' (Keep saying it over and over until you hear this instrument's name.) If you're doing a hasty, haphazard job, you're said to do it with 'a lick and a promise.' What's the origin of that expression? Who put the piping in the expression 'piping hot'? Oh, that gives me 'agita'! A Connecticut native says her Midwestern colleagues office were flabbergasted to encounter this expression, which she's known all her life. Grant and Martha discuss this word for 'upset' and its likely linguistic roots. Hear the song about 'agita' from the movie 'Broadway Danny Rose'. When somebody cuts you off in traffic do you 'feel all stabby'? Grant discusses this slang term. You know the sputtering, raspberry-like noises you make with your lips on a baby's tummy so he'll giggle? Many people call that a 'raspberry,' but some people call that a 'zerbert.' A caller's husband insists that Bill Cosby coined the term on his popular sitcom. She begs to differ. The expression 'over yonder' isn't just the stuff of Carole King songs and old-timey hymns. To many Southerners, it's everyday English. The hosts discuss this poetic-sounding turn of phrase. For tech-savvy types, saying 'ping me,' meaning 'contact me,' is as natural as grabbing a snack while waiting for your computer to boot up. The hosts disagree about whether the verb to ping has already moved into common parlance in the larger world. It's a grammatical question that trips up even the best writers sometimes: Is it 'who or whom'? A physician says he likes the sentiment in a colleague's email signature, but he's not sure it's 100% grammatical. The sentence: 'There are some patients whom we cannot cure, but there are none we cannot help, cannot comfort, and none we cannot harm.' -- 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

If a colleague repeatedly mispronounces a word, what's the best way to handle it? Should you correct him? Ignore it? Is it possible to discuss the proper way to say something without being rude or condescending? -- 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

The English language has no shortage of words that mean nonsensical talk, including one that's piqued a listener's curiosity: How did flannel come to mean 'empty chatter' or 'hot air,' as in 'Don't give me any of that flannel!'? -- 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 Apr. 11, 2009.] Why are the names of cars so unimaginative? Grant argues that auto manufacturers might take inspiration from 'ornithology' to build a better car name. (Then again, would you be any less aggravated if you were rear-ended by a 'lazuli bunting'?) Also this week, why do so many young folks 'pepper their speech with the word 'like,' and what, if anything, can be done about it? All that, plus Luddites, chicken bog, a ducks on June bug, and the possible origins of the phrase to get one's goat. Ever been met with a quizzical look and the question, 'Do what?' The hosts discuss this dialectal equivalent of 'How's that?' or 'Come again?' For many Southerners, it's very picture of eagerness and alacrity: 'He was all over that like a duck on a June bug!' Martha and Grant reveal the memorable image behind this curious expression. Grant notes that birds sometimes get re-christened with a different name. Often a bird's 'commemorative name'--one that honors a bird's discoverer--will be replaced years later. Case in point: 'Rivoli's hummingbird' is now known as the 'magnificent hummingbird.' Puzzle Guy Greg Pliska takes equal portions of words and numbers, mixes well, and whips up a quiz called 'Initiarithmetic.' The idea is to guess the words based on the initial letters of well-known phrases involving numbers. For example: 'There are 12 M in the Y.' Wait, that was too easy. How about this one: 'There are 2 K of P in the W. T W D the W into T K of P, and T W D.' Is there a way to get youngsters to stop overusing the word 'like'? The mother of a middle-schooler who's picked up the habit wonders where it came from and how she can stop it. Grant and Martha have suggestions, and Martha mentions this enlightening essay about teenagers and 'like' by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg 'Chicken bog' isn't a bird name, nor is it a place. It's a dish of rice, chicken, country sausage, and lots of black pepper, found primarily in the Southeast. It sometimes goes by the name chicken perlow or pillow or pilau. A South Carolina caller wonders about the origin of these food terms. By the way, if you like chicken bog, you'll love the annual bog-off in Loris, South Carolina. Some folks use the old-fashioned exclamation 'Good night, nurse!' as a handy substitute for a cussword. But where'd it come from? Grant explains how this phrase became popular in the early 20th century. What's a 'Luddite'? Martha explains that this term for 'someone resistant to technological change' has its roots in a form of populist rage in the early 19th century. A Texas grandmother says she's long been baffled about the origin of a counting rhyme that she learned from 'her' grandmother. During the game, her grandmother bounced her on her knee, saying, 'Malagee Buck, Malagee Buck, how many fingers do I hold up?' The caller learned that the game she loved as a child is incredibly widespread throughout the world in various forms, and dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If you're told to 'keep your eyes peeled,' you're being warned to stay alert. But--'peeled'? Where'd we get the expression to 'get someone's goat'? A caller suspects it comes from a Sicilian folk tale. But does it? -- 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