A Way with Words

English Down Under - 5 Jan. 2009

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 05:01:00 GMT

[This episode originally aired October 11, 2008.]

This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andâkangarooster? They explain the connection between stereotypes and stereos, and why we call the person clearing tables in a restaurant a busboy. Also, what's the plural of moose? Meese? Mooses?

Great news for language fans: The Australian National Dictionary is now available online for free. It's full of fascinating words from Down Under. Contrary to what you might think, for example, kangaroosters are pouchless and feather-free, and a pumpkin squatter isn't a trendy thigh-reducing exercise.

Ever been accused of faunching around? A San Diego listener says her family used this expression to describe the act of squirming fussily or impatiently, the kind of thing that happens when a toddler gets a haircut. She asks if the word is unique to her family.

Say there's one moose, and then another comes along. Now there are twoâwhat? Meese? Mooses? Moose? A Denver man wants to know the correct plural term for moose. The hosts offer news you can use about moose.

If Grandma thinks you're coming down with the epizootic, she'll probably want to put you to bed and bring you a bowl of soup. But what's an epizootic, anyway? And does being diagnosed with it make you feel better or worse?

Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle called 'Blank the Blank' or 'Verb the Noun,' about three-word phrases with a 'the' in the middle. It's harder than you might think, so play along and see if you can 'blank' the 'blank.'

How about the phrase saddle my nag? No, this phrase isn't some obscure bit of jargon from world of finance. It's an expression familiar to Aussie schoolchildren. Martha explains what it means.

If the word is spelled a-s-k, why do so many people pronounce 'ask' as 'axe'? Grant has a surprising answer, one that goes all the way back to, believe it or not, the time of Chaucer.

If a tippler has one too many, he's said to be three sheets to the wind. But why three? And why, of all things, sheets?

A Wisconsin listener remembers a boss who used to use an odd expression whenever he wanted to change the subject of a discussion. The boss would say, 'Well, wet birds don't fly at night,' then switch to another subject. Grant explains what the term likely means. Hint: Not much!

Aerial ping-pong: Is it a new Olympic sport? A less intense version of tonsil hockey? Martha reveals the meaning of this Australian English term.

In this week's installment of 'Slang This!' a contestant from the National Puzzlers' League tries to guess the meaning of the term vigorish. And no, it's not a Viagra-laced anise liqueur. He also guesses the meaning of the phrase how we roll.

Everyone knows the term stereotype, but did you ever stop to wonder what the word has to do with stereos? Not much, really. But it does derive from the world of printing.

Why do we call the fellow clearing the dishes and silverware a busboy? A Chicago listener isn't satisfied with the answer, 'Because he's bussing the table.' Grant reveals the terms likely Latin roots.

You're going to meet yourself coming back. A New York City woman who's always used this expression is surprised when a friend is puzzled by it. Is it really that unusual? Grant assures her that it's been around for quite a while.

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Automobile Words of the Year - 29 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:02:00 GMT

We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about words that came from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Gas prices have been all over the place, but worse still than high gas-prices are accidents caused by DWT, which is short for 'driving while texting.'

Legislation and rules were considered in municipalities across the country to stop people from sending text messages on their phones while driving, though few bills seem to have passed.

Thanks to high fuel prices, the word gas-sipper made a comeback in 2008. It's the opposite of a gas-guzzler. If a car sips gas, it consume less.

Another approach to conserving fuel would be hypermiling. This word, created in 2004, was Oxford University Press's word of the year for 2008.

It means to take extraordinary measures to conserve fuel, things like turning off the engine when going down hills, avoiding the brakes, and drafting behind larger vehicles. Drafting means riding up close where wind resistance is less.

This approach to fuel economy is stock in trade for the carborexic. That's a person who is energy anorexic, meaning they do things like never use air-conditioning, turn off their refrigerators when they go a way for the weekend, and fill the few lights they use with low wattage bulbs.

And that's it for our word-of-the-year minicasts. You can find more words of the year at the web site of the American Dialect Society, at americandialect.org.

Also, on our web site at waywordradio.org, you can find more minicasts, news about language current events, and full episodes of our call-in show, all at no cost to you.

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Coinkydinks and Big Boxes - 29 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:01:00 GMT

[This episode first aired May 10, 2008.]

We all misspeak from time to time, but how about when we mangle words on purpose? Do you ever say 'fambly' instead of family, 'perazackly' for exactly, or 'coinkydink' for coincidence? When Grant recently wrote a newspaper column about saying things wrong on purpose, the response was enormous. Why is it that many people find such wordplay hard to resist? We consider this question and share their own favorite examples.

A Pennsylvania minister is curious about a phrase her family uses: 'by way of Robin Hood's barn' or 'around Robin Hood's barn,' meaning a long, circuitous route.

How do you pronounce the architectural term 'beaux arts'? (Yep, Grant accidentally left of the final S when he spelled the term on the air.) Is it pronounced 'boh-ZART,' 'boh-ART,' 'boh-ZAR,' or 'boh-ZARTS'? We settle a dispute between a New Jersey woman and her nephew.

Martha shares the winners of a contest for Best Book Titles of the Year. Or would that be Oddest Book Titles of the Year?

Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a puzzle in which we remove the first letter of a phrase to yield another with a different meaning. Try one: originally it was a boxing film starring Robert De Niro. Now it describes a head of cattle that's perhaps getting on in years.

A Wisconsin woman is trying to remember 'a term for paths in the grass created by pedestrians taking shortcuts.' Grant has an answer for her, straight from the jargon of urban planning professionals. The caller also wants 'recommendations for a good thesaurus.' The hosts' response may surprise you.

A caller is curious about a slang term she hears from her friends in the military. The word is 'Jody,' and it means someone who steals a soldier's girlfriend. Grant tells the colorful story behind this bit of military slang, as well as the songs it inspired. Here's a sample of Jody calls from the Vietnam war and from the Korean War.

Grant and Martha share more intentional mispronunciations, including 'tar-ZHAY' instead of Target.

This week's Slang This! contestant is not just any word nerd. She's Dorothea Gillim, creator of the animated PBS series WordGirl. Dorothea tries to guess the meaning of the odd terms 'pelican crossing' and 'zanjero.' The new season of WordGirl starts Monday, May 26th, and airs Mondays through Fridays.

What is 'janky'? A Chattanooga caller uses it describe something inferior or bad.

A Wisconsin man wonders about the use of the term 'big box store' to denote the stores of big retail chains like Wal-Mart. Is 'big box' a reference to the size and shape of the stores, or the fact that they sell huge appliances that come in, well, big boxes? Here's a silly song from JibJab about bix box stores.

A Pittsburgh man is bothered by people who would say someone wrote an 'outraged letter.' Can a letter really be angry and indignant or is it really the writer who's upset? Martha answers his question and seizes the opportunity to talk about the four-syllable word, 'hypallage.'

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org/. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Cut to the Chase - 22 Dec. 2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:01:00 GMT

There's nothing like an oddly phrased headline to brighten your day. How about 'Actor Sent to Jail for Not Finishing Sentence'? Or 'Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped'? Same for signs that make you do a double take, like 'Senior Citizens! Buy One, Get One Free.' A San Diego caller shares a couple of her favorite oddly worded signs, and the hosts mention a few of their own.

If someone's driving you bonkers, you'd be forgiven for grumbling, 'He's such a pill!' But why a pill?

Did Grandpa ever enthuse about Grandma's cooking with the words 'Good stuff, Maynard!' A Waukesha, Wisconsin caller remembers his own grandfather doing that, and wants to know how this expression came about.

In an earlier episode, http://.waywordradio.org/word-encounters-of-the-first-kind/, we discussed the slang term sketchy, meaning 'creepy' or 'alarming' or 'suspicious.' Grant shares an email from a listener suggesting a link to the world of amphetamine users.

Just in time for the holidays, Quiz Guy John Chaneski arrives with bagful of puzzling questions about Christmas songs. He invites us to take a familiar holiday tune, change one letter, and guess the name of the new song from his clue. Try this one: 'This song tells how animals in the wild--like the lion, wildebeest, giraffe, and elephant--ring in the holidays.' Hint: Pay attention to that word 'ring.'

Your brother-in-law the motormouth beats around the bush for so long about something that in exasperation you tell him to 'cut to the chase.' The hosts explain the Hollywood roots of this phrase.

When Barack Obama intoned, 'I do not underestimate the enormity of the task ahead,' some grammar sticklers recoiled. Pointing to the word's roots, they insist that enormity means not 'large,' but 'out of the ordinary.' A caller who's been following a heated online dispute about this word asks the hosts for a verdict. They give the president-elect a pass.

Remember when Bugs Bunny used to say, 'Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute?' A caller wants to know if cotton-pickin' has racist overtones.

In an earlier episode, http://waywordradio.org/a-moniker-for-your-monitor/,
we discussed whether there's a word for 'a drawn-out leave-taking'--when, say, a friend says 'goodbye' but keeps thinking of 'one more thing' to say before exiting. Martha suggested the term doorknob-hanging. Several listeners wrote to say that physicians commonly use the terms getting doorknobbed and doorknob question to mean something similar.

This week's 'Slang This!' contestant, from Cold Spring, Kentucky, tries to puzzle out the meaning of slang terms, including herky and producer's button.

In certain parts of the South, a small, impromptu gift is variously known by the sibilant synonyms sirsee, surcy, searcy, or circe. A South Carolina woman who's heard the word all her life is baffled as to where it came from.

Uh-oh. Your credit card's missing. As you frantically search for it, your mind fast-forwards through the bad things that could happen if it's been stolen. Then, to your enormous relief, you find the card. Is there a specific word for that kind of immense relief, when something you've dreaded doesn't happen?

On the QT means 'surreptitiously' or 'hush-hush.' Why the letters? Are they an abbreviation?

Martha talks about a favorite Latin-based word: pandiculation. It's a term that means 'the stretching that accompanies yawning.'

By the way, for more strangely worded signs, check out 'The Bad Sign Brigade' on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/labels4dummies/

For amusing headlines and unfortunate journalistic locutions, we recommend the 'Sic!' section of Michael Quinion's newsletter, available from his site, World Wide Words, http://www.worldwidewords.org.

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

The Lipstick Express - 15 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:03:00 GMT

Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and--how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the 2008 presidential campaign?--lipstick on a pig. Some new and not-so-new terms leapt onto the national stage during Gov. Sarah Palin's run for the vice presidency. Grant discusses these expressions as our 'Word of the Year 2008' series continues.

We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about the acronym PUMA.

When Sarah Palin took the stage this year as a surprise pick for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, the election changed. Her hugely popular public appearances, her good looks, and her role as a Washington outsider served as catalysts for new words and catchphrases.

For example, she described herself as a hockey mom.

It's a decades-old term for someone who spends a great deal of time passionately aiding her children's interest in the sport that uses a puck and a stick.

The only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull, she was fond of saying, is lipstick.

So, when Barack Obama said in a speech, 'You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig,' many people assumed he meant to call Palin a pig. The brouhaha about that was called Lipstick-gate by some press and commentators.

That's not the only term that Caribou Barbie, as some people have called her, brought to the fore. Her constant use of the term maverick led writer and actor Tina Fey to use the word mavericky in her Saturday Night Live impressions of Palin. It simply means 'having maverick-like qualities.'

Also, through interviews and background news stories, the other 49 states learned that Alaskans call snowmobiles snow machines, though there's nothing new about that, and that they often refer to the country beyond Alaska as Outside.

That's all about Sarah Palin-inspired words of the year. Next week we'll talk about Olympic-related words of the year.

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

I Can Has Shimmery Eyez - 15 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:02:00 GMT

The death of Martha's favorite cat Typo prompts her to reminisce about him, and about one of her favorite ailurophilic words, chatoyant.

My cat Typo was a gray tabby. Greenish-gold eyes, always getting into trouble. In fact, I'm sure that during his 17 years, he used up far more than 9 lives.

As a kitten, he once jumped head first into a bathtub filled with water. (All I'm going to say about that is 'ouch.') Staying indoors left him indignant. So I tried to train him to walk on a leash. That didn't go so well either. He broke free, skittered all the way up a huge tree -- and nearly hung himself. Thank goodness my neighbors had an extra-long extension ladder.

Typo earned his name the first day we got him: He walked right across the top row of my keyboard, and typed '66666.'

This year, Typo died peacefully. I'll miss the way he used to butt his head up against mine, how he squinted whenever he was happy. You know what else I'll miss? Sometimes, at dawn or at dusk, I'd walk into a room and I'd catch the sudden glow of his eyes.

You know what I'm talking about? That iridescent shimmer? There's a great word to describe that. It's 'chatoyant.' It means 'having a changeable, iridescent luster, like a cat's eyes.' You might describe a 'chatoyant gem,' for example. Or a 'chatoyant silk dress.' I once read a poem that included the phrase 'a silence chatoyant.'

Where'd we get such an odd-sounding word? If you speak French, you'll see the word for cat curled up inside this word. Chatoyant is from French 'chatoyer,' literally ' to shimmer like a cat's eyes.'

Speaking of the word 'tabby,' did you know its linguistic roots go all the way back to a suburb of Baghdad? Back in the 17th century, a kind of silk cloth with streaked markings was produced in the part of Baghdad known as al-'Attibya. The cloth took its Arabic name from the name of the place where it was made. A version of this word passed into Medieval Latin, French, and ultimately into English, and soon came to be applied not just to 'striped silk taffeta' but the cats who resemble it.

Almost Up to Possible - 15 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:01:00 GMT

We recommend books that make great gifts for language lovers, talk about footwear called go-aheads, and look further into going commando. Also, was the 2008 election a historic event or an historic event?

The second edition of the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus <http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Reference/?view=usa&ci=9780195342840> is chock-full of synonyms, of course, but what makes it special are the essays and usage notes by authors such as Simon Winchester, David Lehman, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace. Grant talks about his experience working as an editor on this volume and what David Foster Wallace taught him about language.

We all know that the 2008 presidential election was historic. But was it a historic event or an historic event?

The story goes that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market. If that's the case, then we hope it's not long before we're all hearing people exclaim, 'Why, that skirt is almost up to possible!' An Iowa listener recalls that when she was a teen, her granny used that phrase when tsk-tsking about the length of her granddaughter's miniskirt.

In an earlier episode <http://waywordradio.org/riddled-through-with-riddles/>, we speculated about the origin of the phrase go commando, which means to go without underwear. We suggested that it was somehow associated with being 'tough as a commando,' gritting one's teeth through the attendant chafing. But a listener who served as an infantryman in Vietnam has a different take. After a comrade suggested he 'go commando,' he discovered that opting out of his army-issued boxer shorts actually made him more comfortable in the tropical heat. We love these firsthand reports about language, so keep 'em coming.

We welcome back the other half of our clopping Clydesdale team of Quiz Guys, Greg Pliska. This week, Greg hauls in some limericks in honor of the year 2008. As you might expect, his Odes to â08 cover everything from the ridiculous to the subprime.

You hear about political groups canvassing for votes. But why canvas? We talk about the possible origins of this word, and the connection between the cannabis and the material known as canvas.

There's the late CNN broadcaster William Headline, the preacher named James God, and the physician named Dr. Hurt. Names like these that match the person's profession are called aptronyms or aptonyms. We talk about the man who coined the term aptronym, and toss in a few more examples. Have a favorite aptronym from your own experience? Tell us about it in the discussion forum <http://tinyurl.com/5h5nfm/>.

Here's a question more and more same-sex couples face when starting a family: What names will our child call us? 'Mommy and Mama'? 'Mommy and Jane?' Maybe a made-up name? An Ohio woman and her female partner are contemplating having a baby, but can't decide which parental names to use.

This week's Slang This! contestant from the National Puzzlers' League <http://puzzlers.org/>, is an actress from New York City. In this hospital-themed quiz, she tries to guess the meaning of the terms sillysoma, fascinoma, happy meal, and code brown.

Slap, slap, slap, slap--the sound of flip-flops on your feet. These floppy-soled shoes go by other names like zoris and thongs, but a caller wonders why in some parts of the country they're called go-aheads.

You have a pair of gloves, and there are two of them; you have a pair of shoes, and there are two; a pair of socks, and there's one for each foot, right? So why do we have a pair of jeans when it's only one item?

Finally today, Martha and Grant talk about two books they love to recommend as gifts: Idiom's Delight by Suzanne Brock, and Karma Wilson's book for children, Bear Snores On, illustrated by Jane Chapman. (Idiom's Delight is out of print, but you can find copies online at places like Alibris.com <http://tinyurl.com/6m9mcg/>.)

PUMA (minicast) - 8 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 13:14:00 GMT

We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008. Last week we talked about "ground game."

Another political term that we crossed paths with was PUMA.

PUMA is an acronym for Party Unity My Ass, which began as a Facebook group.

Members of that group were Democrats who were disaffected after Hillary Clinton failed to secure a sufficient number of delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

Some of these disaffected Democrats formed groups and committees in order to try to bring the matter to a head-to-head smackdown vote at the national convention.

Other PUMAs, as they call themselves, switched allegiances completely and came out in favor of Republican candidate John McCain.

The PUMA umbrella name was widely embraced by the Republicans and was even seen as a false front for true Republicans masquerading as ex-Democrats in order to lure fence-sitting Clinton supporters over to McCain.

As the PUMA movement grew--its true size is not really known--the acronym was revisited and it began to be said that it stood for the much more politer Party Unity Means Action.

The PUMA organization became increasingly irrelevant when Hillary Clinton acknowledged Barack Obama would be the party's nominee.

We may have to wait another four years to see if the term is revived.

That's all about "PUMA." Next week we'll talk about the "hockey mom."

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Never Bolt Your Door with A Boiled Carrot - 8 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 13:02:00 GMT

[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)

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Ground Game (minicast) - 1 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 05:02:00 GMT

We're continuing our look at some of the words of the year of 2008.

Being an election year, it generated a huge amount of political language.

One expression that was not new, but which certainly seems to have exploded in use, was 'ground game.'

Ground game is a political term that refers to the door-to-door, one-on-one tactics used in the presidential campaigns.

The victory of the Obama campaign, in particular, has been widely credited to its voter registration drives, its organized efforts to sway undecided or independent voters, its email lists, and its repeated reminders of when and where to vote.

Ground game has its roots in sports.

In football, playing a ground game is about not kicking or passing, but pushing the ball step by step toward the goal with scrimmaging. It's a slog to the end zone, but it avoids investing too much hope on a single play.

In martial arts, a ground game is the kind of fighting that happens on the mat or floor, as opposed to the kicking and punching that happens when standing up.

It puts the combatants face-to-face. This, too, is a tough slog toward victory, though perhaps a more sure one as it does not rely on a miraculous kick or punch.

That's all about 'ground game.' Next week we'll talk about the acronym 'PUMA.'

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Moonbats and Wingnuts - 1 Dec. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 05:01:00 GMT

[This episode first aired September 20, 2008.]

Here's a bit of political slang now making the rounds: sleepover. No, we're not talking about another pol caught with his pants down. We're talking about spending the night with, well, a voting machine. In this week's episode, we examine this and other examples of political language.

You call the repairman to fix a balky garage door, but when he gets there, it inexplicably works. You summon a plumber, only to find that when he arrives, your toilet's no longer leaking--and you're out $150. Or you discover that somewhere between your home and the doctor's office, your kid's sore throat miraculously healed. A caller in Traverse City, Michigan, is tearing her hair out over this phenomenon, which she calls "phixophobia." But, she asks, might there be an even better word for the way inanimate objects seem to conspire against us? We think so: resistentialism.

Great Scott! You've heard the expression. But who was Scott and why was he so great? Or was he an impressive Scotsman? Martha and Grant can't say for sure, although the evidence points toward a Civil War soldier who happened to go by that name.

Our hosts bandy about some more political slang terms and explain their meaning and origin. Or did you already know the difference between a moonbat and a wingnut?

Quiz Guy John Chaneski strikes up the band, begins the beguine, and treats Martha and Grant to musical quiz. Warning: Songs may be sung. Not to worry, though--all three have promised to keep their day jobs.

If someone handed you something and told you to stick it in your jockey box, where would you put it? A Baltimore caller who grew up in Utah says when he used this term on a road trip with a friend, his pal was flummoxed. Is jockey box an expression peculiar to one part of the country?

Is that oh-so-handy sticky stuff called "duct tape" or "duck tape"? An Emmy-nominated filmmaker is wondering, specifically because he has to instruct narrators to be careful to avoid running together a T sound at the end of a word with the T sound at the beginning of a word. And that has him further wondering if such elision of consonants has created other terms. We offer him an answer and a glass of ice tea. Or would that be iced tea?

It's Obamarama time! We discuss the growing number of plays on the name of the Democratic presidential candidate.

A North Carolina pediatrician is this week's contestant for an animal-themed version of our slang quiz. He tries to figure out the meaning of dead cat bounce and pigeon pair.

A caller's question about the word wonky, in the sense of askew, leads to a broader question: What makes a word slang, anyway?

Why do we say something is jet black? Does it have to do with the color of a 747's exhaust? Or skid marks on the runway? Or something else entirely? We provide a color with a mineralogical answer.

A listener phones with his pet restaurant peeve: When your waiter ask, "Are you working on that?" Martha and Grant agree and pile on with gusto.

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds - 23 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:01:00 GMT

Feeling fankled? It's a Scots English word that means "messed up" or "confused." In this week's episode, Grant and Martha also discuss a whole litter of synonyms for "dust bunny," a slew of different terms for the piece of playground equipment you slide on, and the proper way to refer to a baby platypus.

When you were growing up, what did you call that piece of playground equipment that you climb up and then slide down? A former New Jersey resident recalls that when her family moved to Indiana, her playmates were startled when she called it a sliding board. They called it simply a slide. So is sliding board a regional term? Yes, indeed. Depending on where you grew up, you might have spent your childhood whooshing down a sliding pon, a sliding pond, or a sliding pot. Then there's the British name for it, chute, as well as Yiddish glistch, and Australian slippery dip.

You know the type: Those guys whose everyday wardrobes are the fashion equivalent of oatmeal, with nothing fancier than khaki pants and knit shirts. One such fashion minimalist wonders if there's a specific terms for guys like him. He puts the question this way: "What's the opposite of a clothes horse?" Martha and Grant try to come up with a suit-able term. "Label-agnostic," maybe?

Quick! That stuff under your bed--what do you call it? Dust bunnies? House moss? Beggar's velvet? Ghost turds? Those fluffy little puffballs go by lots of different names. But a caller is perplexed by his mother's term for those ever-multiplying dustwads: slut's wool.

Quiz Guy Johnny C--a.k.a. John Chaneski--works his magic with a new puzzle called "Three's a Charm." The object of the game is to figure out the one word that can be placed in front of each of three other words to form three new, understandable terms. Like this: What one word fits before the words "surgery," "history," and "exam"? We thought "rectal" might work, but turns out it didn't.

How about the phrase "on the ball"? A listener wonders if its origin derives from a landing maneuver on aircraft carriers. Does his theory hold water?

If you're of a certain age, you may be surprised when someone asks you "hit me up"--and even more so when it turns out he's asking you to call him on his cell phone. Grant explains how "hit me up" began to take on a new meaning.

If someone calls you a "notorious" singer, should you be flattered or insulted? An Indiana caller says he's hearing the word notorious used in a positive way, and wonders whether this adjective be reserved for describing things in a negative way, as in "a notorious criminal."

For this week's episode of Slang This!, we turn the tables on our other Quiz Guy, Greg Pliska. Greg has to figure out the difference between "dusting" and "simping," and between "johnny pump" and "reverse toilet." Those last two sound like things you definitely wouldn't want to confuse.

A biology student at Stanford University has a question that's surely on the minds of many listeners: Is there's an official term for "baby platypus"? He's heard the term "puggle" used to denote these cute little critters, but is unsure if "puggle" is a legitimate scientific term.

Martha reports on some listeners' neologisms for the north-south equivalent of "bicoastal." So far, their suggestions for people who make those long, longitudinal commutes have been limited to the left coast, including: No-Cals, Yo-Cals, Bi-Vivants, and Verti-Cals. Have a better word? Tell us here.

http://tinyurl.com/6ycaug

"Full fathom five thy father lies..." When the Bard wrote these immortal words, he was talking about the word "fathom" as a measure of distance. But a Chicago caller can't quite fathom the meaning of the verb "to fathom." The hosts help him get his arms around this term.

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Nuke the Fridge - 23 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:01:00 GMT

We kick off our series on contenders for 2008's "Word of the Year" with a look at "nuke the fridge."

The American Dialect Society will hold the 19th annual "Word of the Year" vote in January. It's the granddaddy of all word of the year votes--the longest running, the most academic, and the most fun.

And as we approach January 9th in San Francisco, we'll be talking here, in these minicasts, about some of the likeliest candidates.

One very odd one that caught our eye was "nuke the fridge."

Putting it politely, it means to exhaust the possibilities or merits of a movie franchise.

Putting it negatively, it means to destroy a movie franchise through the hubris and arrogance of a successful producer or director.

The term was coined based upon a scene in the latest Indiana Jones movie, in which the hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator.

"Nuke the fridge" is patterned after "jump the shark," which was coined a few years ago to refer to anything that had peaked in popularity or quality and was now on a downward slide.

Jumping the shark referred to an episode on the sitcom Happy Days in which Fanzine water-skied over a shark, a moment thought by Happy Days aficionados (there are such things!) to be the surest sign of the show's decline.

That's all about "nuke the fridge." Next time we'll talk about "ground game."

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A Year of Words - 17 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:01:00 GMT

It's that time again, when people start thinking about a 'new or resurgent word or phrase that best captures the spirit of the past year.' And what a year! We heard the words 'bailout' and 'lipstick' more times than we'd ever dreamed, and saw also the rise of invented words like 'staycation' and 'recessionista.' What are your nominations for 2008's Word of the Year?

'Do English-speaking foreigners understand you better if you speak English with a foreign accent?' A Californian says that on a recent visit to Armenia, he discovered the locals had an easier time if he spoke English with an Armenian accent. Is this okay or could it be seen as condescending?

'Buckaroo' is an English word adapted from the Spanish word <i>vaquero</i>, meaning 'cowboy.' Is there a specific term for the linguistic process whereby such words are adapted into English?

Martha nominates another Word of the Year candidate: 'Joe the,' as in 'Joe the Plumber,' and subsequent variations on the 'X the Y' formula arising from a certain drain-fixer's quarter-hour of fame.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski stops by with a quiz about superlatives. Naturally, his name for the quiz is 'Best. Puzzle. Ever.'

Why do we say someone's 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed'? Your chipper, chattering hosts are ready with the 'sciurine' answer. 'http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sciurine&r=66

An Indiana woman shudders every time anyone uses the expression 'comprised of.' She wants to know if she's right that it's bad grammar, and more important, is she right to be a stickler about it?

Martha and Grant discuss some other Word of the Year candidates, including 'hockey mom' and 'hypermiling.'

The term 'Chinese fire drill' can mean either a 'state of confusion' or the adoloscent ritual involving a red light and a carful of rowdy teenagers. But a caller who overheard the expression at work worries that expression might be racist.

This week's slang quiz challenges a Seattle video game designer to pick out the correct slang terms from a mishmash of possible answers, including 'hammantaschen,' 'party party,' 'play pattycake,' and 'get off.'

In 2008, is using the term 'jive turkey' politically incorrect, or just a little dorky-sounding? A Las Vegas schoolteacher jokingly used it with her students, then had second thoughts. Grant sets her mind at ease.

It's raining, it's pouring, but the sun is still shining. Quick--what do you call that? Some folks refer to it a 'sunshower,' and others call it a 'monkey's wedding.' But a woman says her Southern-born mother used a much more unnerving expression: 'The devil's beating his wife.' Martha and Grant discuss the possible origins of this expression and its variants, like 'The devil is beating his wife and the angels are crying.' Around the world, this meteorological phenomenon goes by an astonishing range of names. In Lithuanian, the name translates as 'orphan's tears.' In Korean, 'a tiger is getting married.' Here's a list of many more, collected a few years ago by linguist Bert Vaux: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/9/9-1795.html

Which of the following three factors has the 'biggest influence on a person's accent'? Is it your geographic location, your family, or the media?

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Of Gossamer and Geese (minicast) - 10 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:02:00 GMT

It's a warm day in late autumn. You're out for a stroll in the country. If the air is still, and the sun is at just the right angle, you may see the glint of spider threads floating lazily in the air. Particularly at this time of year, some tiny spiders use an odd way to travel: They shoot out threads of their own silk, and then hitch a ride on the breeze. Entomologists call this technique 'ballooning.' Walt Whitman described it in a poem, writing of a 'noiseless patient spider' launching forth 'filament, filament, filament, out of itself. / Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them....'

And the word for these silky threads? 'gossamer.'

It's a beautiful word, gossamer--almost sounds like itself, doesn't it? This term's meaning has come to extend to anything 'flimsy, insubstantial, or gauzy.' .' Cole Porter sang of 'a trip to the moon on gossamer wings.' And Charlotte Bronte wrote of 'a gossamer happiness hanging in the air.'

So how did spider silk ever get the name 'gossamer'?

It seems the spider's filaments take their name from an old word for late autumn. In this country, that period is often called 'Indian Summer.' But in Britain, the same period was long known as 'St. Martin's summer,' a reference to Martin's feast day, November 11. Centuries ago, though, speakers of Middle English referred to this period as 'gosesomer'--a name that means 'goose summer.'

Why the goose in goose summer? That's where things get a little hazy. The most likely explanation is that early November traditionally was the time when people feasted on fattened geese. In fact, an old German word for November literally translates as 'geese month.'

The name for this warm period, goosesummer, was later applied to the phenomenon that country folk observed at that time of year, those silky, gossamer threads floating in the autumn air.

It seems that over the years, just like those tiny spiders, the word 'gossamer' has drifted a long way.

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You'll find the Walt Whitman poem here:

http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=222

For more about gossamer, including Henry David Thoreau's fascination with it, check out 'Beneath the Second Sun: A Cultural History of Indian Summer,' by Adam W. Sweeting.

http://tinyurl.com/56odbo

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Pwned Prose, Stat! - 10 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:01:00 GMT

[This episode first aired September 13, 2008.]

When you get to the end of a wonderful book, your first impulse is to tell someone else about it. In this week's episode, Martha and Grant discuss what they've been reading and the delights of great prose.

An Illinois man recalls that as a kid, he used to mix fountain drinks of every flavor into a concoction he and his friends called a 'suicide.' He wonders if anyone else calls them that. Why a 'suicide'? Because it looks and tastes like poison?

It started as a typo for 'own,' now it's entrenched in online slang. A Kentucky caller is curious about 'pwn.' It rhymes with 'own' and means 'to defeat' or 'to triumph over.' Our hosts talk about a special meaning of 'own' in the computer-gaming world.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski is Havana good time with Martha and Grant on an round-the-world 'International Puzzle Hunt' that will leave you Beijing for more.

You seem to hear it on all the television hospital dramas: 'stat!' A physician says she knows it means 'immediately,' but she doesn't know its origins. Quick! Is there a Latin expert in the house?

A San Diego fisherman notes that he hears mariners talk about 'snotty weather.' 'Snotty?' Is it the kind that gives you the sniffles? Or is does it cop an attitude?

Do you ever stare at a word so long that you think it's mispellllled? Even though it isn't? Your dialectal duo hunt up a word for that phenomenon.

Grant and Martha reveal what books are on their own nightstands, waiting to be read. Just the top of the stacks, natch, because there are just too many.

This week's 'Slang This!' contestant tries to guess the meaning of the terms 'liver rounds' and 'put the bite on someone.'

An Indianapolis woman who grew up in the South says that when her slip was showing, her father used to say, 'Who do you think you are, Miss Astor'?' Martha shares other euphemisms for slips showing. If someone sidles up to you and says, 'Pssssst! Mrs. White is out of jail,' it's time to check your hemline.

You can tell someone's an 'A Way with Words' listener when they confess to lying awake at night wondering about questions like, 'Are the words 'fillet' and 'flay' etymologically related?'

A Minnesotan has been observing his infant babbling, and wonders if words like 'mama' and 'papa' arise from sounds that babies naturally make anyway. Are there some words or sounds that are instinctive? Or do they only learn them from their parents?

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Language Headlines (minicast) - 3 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 05:02:00 GMT

Last year British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green struck a deal with the publisher Chambers Harrap to create an exhaustive dictionary of English slang. Now, says the London Telegraph, the first fruit of that relationship has appeared in the form of the Chambers Slang Dictionary.

The main sources of slang, Green says, have remained the same: sex and sexual organs, drinking, and terms of abuse. But ,there are always innovations.

The Telegraph offers some of them: boilerhouse, modern British rhyming slang for spouse. Jawsing, US teen slang for lying. And, muzzy, an Irish word for a naughty child.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slang.xml

In the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times, Jennifer Scheussler reviews 'On The Dot,' by Nicholas and Alexander Humez. It's an exhaustive look at the period or the dot, that little piece of punctuation that does so much. And I do mean exhaustive. The book is so digressive and sometimes so far afield of its subject matter that you might find yourself flipping to the front to make sure you're still reading the same book.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/dot-everything/

In the discussion forum on that page, I discovered the 'fini.' This is a new piece of punctuation created by Dave Rosenthal, an assistant managing editor at the Baltimore Sun. The fini is a square instead of a circle.

Dave says, 'A period is usually a fine way to end a sentence. But when there's a forcefulness attached to the words, I worry that the period will roll away. It is, after all, just a tiny black ball.'

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/07/the_endofdiscussion.html

Do you want to find out what Virginia Woolf and John Steinbeck sounded like? They're part of an audio collection from the British Library, called 'The Spoken Word: British Writers.' It was discussed and played on NPR's All Things Considered.

The audio is a rare find, as many recordings of the early days of radio were never saved. Recordings by George Orwell, for example, have yet to be found, even though he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704

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Hair of the Politics that Bit You - 3 Nov. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 05:01:00 GMT

This week on 'A Way with Words': Feel like having a little 'hair of the dog'? Grant and Martha explain what dog hair has to do with hangover cures. And what do you call it when random objects form a recognizable image, like a cloud resembling a bunny, or the image of Elvis in a grilled cheese sandwich?

With all this talk about this year's election ballot, did you ever stop to think about where the word 'ballot' comes from? Martha and Grant discuss terms related to politics, including 'ballot' and 'leg treasurer.'

'A fish stinks from the head down.' When an Indianapolis woman is quoted saying this, she's accused of calling the leader of a particular organization a stinky fish. She says she wasn't speaking literally, insisting that this is a turn of phrase that means 'corruption in an organization starts at the top.' Who's right?

Dude, how'd we ever start using the word 'dude'? The Big Grantbowski traces the word's origin - it's over 125 years old.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski drops by with a puzzle involving overlapping words. He calls it, of course, 'Overlap-Plied Linguistics.'

If you're hung over, and someone offers you 'a little hair of the dog,' you can rest assured you're not being offered a sip of something with real dog hair in it. But was that always the case? Grant has the answer, and Martha offers a word once proposed as a medical term for this crapulent condition: veisalgia.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=crapulent&r=66

A new resident of Pittsburgh is startled by some of the dialect there, like 'yinz' instead of 'you' for the second person plural, and nebby for 'nosy.' What's up with that? For a wonderful site about the dialect of that area, check out Pittsburgh Speech and Society.

http://english.cmu.edu/pittsburghspeech/index.html

If someone says he 'finna go,' he means he's leaving. But finna? Grant has the final word about finna.

Good news if you've wondered about a word for recognizable images composed of random visual stimuli - that image of Elvis in your grilled-cheese sandwich, for example. It's pareidolia. Here's the article Martha mentions from wordorigins.org:

http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/audio_pareidolia/

In this week's 'Slang This!,' a member of the National Puzzlers' League from Boston tries to guess the meaning of four possible slang terms, including 'labanza,' 'woefits,' 'prosciutto,' and 'moose-tanned.'

At Murray's Cheese http://www.murrayscheese.com/ in Grand Central Station, the workers who sell cheese are called 'cheesemongers.' The store's opening up a new section to sell cold cuts, and workers there are looking for more appetizing term than 'meatmonger.' (Meat-R-Maids? Never mind.) Martha and Grant try to help.

At sports events in North America, we enthusiastically root for the home team, right? But a woman from Kenosha, Wisconsin, says an Aussie told her that they most assuredly don't do that Down Under. There, he tells her, rooting means 'having sex.' Is he pulling her leg, she wonders?

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Riddled Through With Riddles - 27 Oct. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:01:00 GMT

Here's a riddle: 'Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.' Think you know the answer? You'll find it in this week's episode, in which Grant and Martha discuss this and other old-fashioned riddles. Also: how did the phrase 'going commando' come to be slang for 'going without underwear'? And which word is correct: 'orient' or 'orientate'?

To go commando means to 'go without underwear.' But why 'commando'? An Indiana listener says the term came up in conversation with her husband after one of them had a near-wardrobe malfunction. She mercifully leaves the rest to the imagination, but still wonders about the term. Grant says its popularity zoomed after a popular episode of 'Friends.' Watch the clips here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0JgkuNBuWI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q--6wtCPHg8&feature=related

A woman who grew up in India says she was baffled when someone with aching feet complained, 'My dogs are barking.' The answer may lie in a jocular rhyme.

Martha is baffled when Grant shares another riddle involving 'four stiff standers, two lookers, and one switchbox.' Can you figure out the answer?

To-ga! To-ga! To-ga! John Chaneski's latest quiz, 'Classics Class,' has the hosts rooting around for the ancient Greek and Latin origins of English words.

Those who commute coast-to-coast are 'bicoastals.' But what do you call someone who commutes along the same coast--between, say, Miami and New York? A woman who now travels regularly between Northern and Southern California to visit the grandchildren wonders what to call herself. She's already considered and nixed 'bipolar.' The hosts try to come up with other suggestions.

Remember when no one ever thought about adding the suffix '-gate' to a word to indicate a scandal? Now there's Troopergate, Travelgate, Monicagate, Cameragate, Sandwichgate, and of course, the mother of all gates, Watergate. Grant talks about the flood of '-gate' words inspired by that scandal from the 1970s.

An Atlanta listener seeks clarification about the difference between may and might? Might 'may' be used to express a possibility, or is 'might' a better choice?

In this week's slang quiz, a member of the National Puzzlers' League http://www.puzzlers.org from Somerville, Massachusetts tries to guess the meaning of bottle room and shred, as used in the context of snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing.

Do you cringe when you hear the words orientate and disorientate? A copy editor in Waldoboro, Maine does. She'd rather hear 'orient' and 'disorient.' The hosts weigh in on that extra syllable.

They were the last words Abraham Lincoln heard before John Wilkes Booth assassinated him: 'Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside-out, old gal--you sockdologizing old man-trap!' Booth knew that this line from the play 'Our American Cousin' would get a big laugh, so he chose that moment to pull the trigger. A Wisconsin listener wants to know the meaning and origin of that curious word, 'sockdologizing.' If you want to read the whole play, which has some silly wordplay and a dopey riddle or two, it's online at Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3158

Does one take preventive or preventative measures? A caller in Ocean Beach, California who just graduated from an exercise science program wants to know which of these terms describes what she's been studying.

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Darwinism and the Dictionary (minicast) - 20 Oct. 2008

words@waywordradio.org — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:00:00 GMT

The British publishers of the Collins dictionary have announced 24 words on their endangered species list. They're words like 'vilipend,' which means 'to treat with contempt,' and 'nitid,' that's n-i-t-i-d, which means 'glistening. '

The editors warn that if they don't see evidence of these words being used in everyday speech and writing, they'll drop them from the dictionary's next edition. They've even set deadline for the doomed words: February 2009. But they've also offered the public a chance to weigh in, and vote for which words deserve a reprieve.

Sure, it's a great publicity stunt. But I have to say that the thought of any word being voted off the lexical island makes me wince.

I understand, of course, that culling the herd is a necessary evil. First, there's the economic reality of dictionary publishing--more words mean more pages, and more pages mean more costs per unit.

Still, I have to tell you I was aghast to realize that on the list was one of my favorite words ever. The word is caducity--c-a-d-u-c-i-t-y. Caducity. It means 'perishability, transience.' More specifically, it can denote 'the infirmities that accompany old age.'

Caducity comes from the Latin word 'cadere,' which means 'to fall.' The same root produced other falling words, like 'cascade' and most likely, 'cadaver,' literally, 'one who has fallen.'

So what I love about this word is that tucked inside it' is a picture of falling away, like leaves in autumn. You might speak of 'the caducity of fame' or the 'caducity of nature.' Or you might say, 'I worry about my parents' growing caducity.'

There's a wistful beauty about this word. And it's not just poetic, it's musical. Listen: caducity.

Contrary to what you might think, lexicographers say it's incredibly hard to coin a word that sticks around long enough to wind up in the dictionary. Same goes for self-conscious efforts to revive words that have become obsolete.

But I'm convinced that 'caducity' has hardly outlived its usefulness. So I'm asking you to join me: Adopt it as your own. Use it. Drop it into casual conversation. Put it into a poem. On a vanity license plate--I don't care. Just use it.

Another thing lexicographers tell us is that just because a word isn't in a dictionary, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So regardless of what the Collins editors decide in February, I'm going to hang on to this one.

Then again, if we all start using it, maybe we can save this lovely word from, well, caducity.

Check out the other words on Collins list here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3046488/Collins-dictionary-asks-public-to-rescue-outdated-words.html

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