A Way With Words

What colorful language do you use to when you're angry and  tempted to use a four-letter word? There's a difference between cursing and cussing: It takes a slow mind to curse, but an active, vibrant mind to cuss. Also, what it means to be stove up, the phrases the horse you rode in on, and it's all chicken but the gravy, plus a couple of handy synonyms for armpit. And when, if ever, can you trust Wikipedia?

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The hadal zone, named for the Greek god Hades, refers to the deepest depths of the ocean floor. James Cameron's deep sea dive http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/26/james-cameron-historic-solo-drive recently made it down there.

There's a difference between cursing and cussing: It takes a slow mind to curse, but an active and vibrant mind to cuss—especially when the cusswords sound like alapaloop palip palam or trance nance nenimimuality. What colorful language do you use to diffuse anger?

What's an oxter? It's another term for the underarm, primarily used in Northern England, Scotland, and Ireland http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-oxt1.htm. A bit nicer than armpit, isn't it? Oxter can also serve as a verb, as in, "We oxtered him out of the club." Need another synonym for that body part that also happens to rhyme with "gorilla"? Try axilla.

A pipe dream is "an unobtainable hope" or "an unrealistic fantasy."  The term originates from the idea of opium pipes, and the strange dreams one might incur while high on opium. Back in the 1890s when the term first showed up, opium pipes were a bit more common.

Here are a few good skeuomorphs, or outdated aesthetic elements: We still refer to the ticking of a clock, even though we're surrounded by digital timekeeping devices, and the kids are working hard for those washboard abs http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/Washboard-Abs.jpg when they don't even know what a washboard is!

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game called Aye Aye, Captain about phrases with that long "I" vowel sound. For example, a colorless synonym for a fib would be a white lie, and another name for a mafioso might be a wise guy.

What does it mean to be stove up? This phrase for sore or stiff has nothing to do with a stovetop; stove is actually the past tense of stave. To stave in a wooden boat is to smash a hole in its side, and thus, to be stove up is to be "incapacitated or damaged." These words are related to the noun stave, the term for one of those flat pieces of wood in a barrel. Similarly, to stave off hunger is to metaphorically beat it back, as if with a stick.

Common wisdom says that if you learn a second language by the age of ten, native speakers won't recognize that it's not your first. Even so, things like idioms or prepositions can often trip up even the most skilled second-language speakers, if their second language is English.

A dish-to-pass supper, common in Indiana, is the same as a pot-luck supper or a covered-dish supper, but the term nosh-you-want drew a red flag when Grant went to visit the Wikipedia page for potluck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potluck. It hadn't appeared in any other form of print, so luckily, the crisis has been averted, because Grant personally edited out this specious term.

The song "Old Dan Tucker" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-GHbDFrwlU has a long history in the United States, going back to the minstrel shows of the 1840s. Martha highly recommends the documentary Ethnic Notions http://newsreel.org/video/ETHNIC-NOTIONS about our country's complicated history with racially-charged imagery in theater and song, and the evolution of racial consciousness in America.

Is it a good thing to be a voracious reader? We think so. Just take Shakespeare's notion of the replenished intellect in Love's Labour's Lost http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8InUqP76OKAJ:www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php%3FWorkID%3Dloveslabours%26Act%3D4%26Scene%3D2%26Scope%3Dscene+%22he+hath+never+fed+of+the+dainties%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The idiom and the horse you rode in on, usually preceded by a far more unfriendly phrase, tends to be directed at someone who's full of himself and unwelcome to boot. It first pops up in the 1950s, and it's written on the spine of a book in Donald Regan's official portrait http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/28/magazine/on-language-of-high-moments-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2008/01/mystery_solved_the_cause_of_ic.php, also known as brain freeze, is a variety of nerve pain that results from something cold touching the roof of the mouth. But some people who suffer from migraines actually find ice cream confuses the nerve in a way that eases the pain—how convenient!

How do you pronounce the word won? Does it rhyme with sun or Juan? Some people, depending on their regional dialect, may hypercorrect their vowels and pronounce certain words in an unusual way.

What is a buster? As TLC sang http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av7m_Pgt1S8, "A scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly, also known as a buster." That is, a buster is that guy on the fringe who's always putting on airs. The word may come from the old term gangbusters, which originally applied to police officers or others who took part in breaking up criminal gangs.

If something's all chicken but the gravy, then it's all good. This colloquialism pops up in an exchange from a 1969 Congressional record.

The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar. It was tense.

This week’s episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett and produced by Stefanie Levine.

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Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.

And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard’s leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.

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A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: words@waywordradio.org

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

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Copyright 2012, Wayword LLC.

What time is it if it's "the crack of chicken"? And when exactly is the "shank of the evening"? How do you pronounce the word spelled H-O-V-E-R? Did Warren G. Harding really coin the word normalcy? Also, a name game, sports nicknames, flounder vs. founder, Laundromats vs. washaterias, Black Dutch, nosebaggers, medical slang terms, and a look back at the joys of the early internet.


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When a car rolls slowly through a stop sign, it's often called a California stop or a California roll http://www.waywordradio.org/mute-point/. But the Midwest has its own monikers for this sneaky move, including the farmer stop, the Chicago stop, and "no cop, no stop."

How early do you have to wake up to see what one listener calls the crack of chicken? It seems to be a twist on the term crack of dawn. Other terms for this early-morning time are o'dark thirty and the scratch of dawn.

Did President Warren G. Harding coin the term normalcy in his famous Return to Normalcy speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXETeWS6ub8? Turns out the word normalcy was already in use before President Harding made it famous, but it's now become largely obsolete, while its synonym, normality, is generally the preferred term. Harding is also credited with--or blamed for--bringing the term hospitalization into the common vernacular.

In his book, Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush http://books.google.com/books?id=Dh0wM9DNjbAC&pg=PA124&dq=allan+metcalf+presidential+voices+belittle&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x0-LT6CRHumI2gW8obHpAg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=presidents%20as%20neologists&f=false, Allan Metcalf points out that U.S. presidents have contributed or popularized quite a few neologisms to the English language.

In Texas, the California stop is also known as an Okie yield sign, an Okie crash sign, and a taxpayer stop.

What does it mean to be gorked or crimped? These slang terms for high on drugs or crumpled in on oneself are used by hospital and Emergency Medical Services workers in a darkly comedic sense, often help cope with the stress of such traumatic work and to build solidarity among co-workers.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game of aptronyms for people whose names fit certain locations or conditions. For example, a guy hanging onto a wall might be named Art. Or what do you call a woman between two buildings? Ally!

The racial descriptor Black Dutch http://www.genealogymagazine.com/blackdutch.html is one used by members of a certain ethnic group, like Cherokee Indian or African-American, that feel their identity will be viewed as more acceptable by those they're around if they use a different adjective. Black Irish and Black German are also used.

What's the difference between flounder and founder? To flounder is "to struggle or thrash about," while to founder is "to sink or to fail." Surprisingly,  the verb flounder shares no etymological root with the fish, though the image of a flounder flapping helplessly about on the shore may have influenced our sense of the word.

Skeuomorphs are aesthetic elements of design that no longer correlate with their original function. Computer software is full of skeuomorphs; for example, the save button that we're all used to is a picture of a floppy disc. But then, who uses floppy discs any more?

With Linsanity and Tebowing sweeping the country, we're thinking about other great sports nicknames. Unfortunately, it seems that with unique names taking up a greater percentage of children born, there's no longer as much practical demand for nicknames. Still, the Babe, Magic, and The Refrigerator http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/sports/great-sports-nicknames-like-magic-are-disappearing.html?pagewanted=all live on in legend.

The increasingly musty expression "like a broken record" has caused some confusion among digital natives who've heard of broken records only in terms of sports!

Ben Zimmer published a brilliant collection of internet memes from the past twenty years in a the journal American Speech. Memes like facepalming http://static.divbyzero.nl/facepalm/doublefacepalm.jpg and the O, rly? owl http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/015/orly.jpg have allowed us to communicate otherwise unwritable sentiments via the internet.

How do you pronounce the word hover? In England, it rhymes more with clobber than lover. If you want to learn how to say "My hovercraft is full of eels" in lots of different languages, head on over to Omniglot. http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hovercraft.htm

It's the shank of the evening! But when is that, exactly? This phrase is typically suggests that the night is far from over, shank being an old word for something straight, or the tail end of something. But as the Dictionary of American Regional English notes, in the South, evening is considered "the time between late afternoon and dusk."

If you're on vacation, watch out for nosebaggers! This mid-19th century slang term refers to tourists who go to resort areas for the day but bring their own provisions and don't contribute to the local economy. A modern nosebagger might be the type of person who cracks open a soda can at the movies.

Do you wash your clothes at a Laundromat or a washateria? http://pics3.city-data.com/businesses/p/1/2/8/1/4151281.JPG A chain of Laundromats in Texas that dated from 1930 to 1950 had the name Washateria, and it took hold as a general term, especially in Texas.

A couple more variations of the California stop: the jackrabbit and the California slide.

This week’s episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett and produced by Stefanie Levine.

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Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.

And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard’s leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: words@waywordradio.org

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate
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 2012, Wayword LLC.

Does the thought of going without your cellphone fill you with separation anxiety? Grant and Martha coin some monikers for this modern-day phobia. Also, what's the best way to win at the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors? Where might you fry eggs in a spider, and where would you refer to a Band-Aid as a plaster? Could sending your child to a language immersion school help the whole family learn a new language? Where'd we get the expression When in Rome, do as the Romans do? Also, Yiddish proverbs and slang from the streets to Capitol Hill.

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How would you feel if someone took away your smartphone? Nomophobia, the suggested moniker for that anxiety produced by the separation between one and their phone, has been circulating on the internet for a few years after being cooked up by a market research firm. Is there a better term for that awful feeling?

What exactly is gobbledygook, and where does the word come from? Texas Congressman Maury Maverick coined the word http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-gob1.htm in 1944 to describe the frustrating jargon used by policymakers in Washington, which reminded him of the sound of turkeys gobbling away. Incidentally, his grandfather Samuel August Maverick, also inspired a term that became popular during the 2008 U.S. elections. http://www.waywordradio.org/maverick-and-gobbledygook-minicast/

What's the best way to win at Rock, Paper, Scissors? Grant delves into the game's various monikers http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23932, its roots going back centuries in Europe and Asia, and the role it plays among children learning about fairness. Studies have even been done to figure the most advantageous moves in competition http://www.worldrps.com/: statistically, scissors is your best bet http://www.worldrps.com/advanced.html.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game called Words of the Year, based on phrases containing each month's three letter abbreviation. So, an ancient demonym would be TroJAN, for January, and a Derby Day cocktail would be a Mint JULep, for July.

What does it mean to redd up the home? This phrase is most common in Pennsylvania, and reflects the presence of early Scots-Irish settlers there. The expression means to "pick up" or "tidy up."

What's the difference between a plaster and a Band-Aid? One's a term used in England for "adhesive bandage," and the other is an American brand name that's almost completely generalized. The use of plaster for this type of bandage in Britain is allusion to the traditional use of sticky pastes to ensure the bandage stayed in place.

The Yiddish Project https://twitter.com/#!/YiddishProject on Twitter translates Yiddish proverbs into English, such as, "Ask advice from everyone but act with your own mind." It's not far from Martha's favorite advice from her North Carolina-born father: "Milk all the cows you can and then churn your own butter."

Should route be pronounced to rhyme with root or stout? There's no evidence to suggest that it can't, or shouldn't, rhyme with stout -- although anyone who's traveled Route 66 might beg to differ.

A collection of Bethlehem, Pa., slang from The Chatauquan http://books.google.com/books?id=qsVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA561&dq=chautauqua+%22coffee+soup%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CoFmT5ieBoaRsAKziuW2Dw&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=chautauqua%20%22coffee%20soup%22&f=false, published in 1888, contains such gems as first, meant to be used interchangeably with just, as in "She is first eight years old," and coffee soup, bread with coffee poured over it.

We've received plenty of feedback about language immersion schools, and many who've attended say that not only did they learn both English and another language fluently by 3rd or 4th grade, but often the whole family picked up some of the new language, too.

Where does the phrase jonesing for come from? Heroin addicts first introduced the phrase in the early 1960s, but like many bits of slang, it soon left its original subculture and entered the mainstream vernacular.
 
The Southern idiom don't that tear the rag off the bush? http://www.word-detective.com/2010/03/04/rag-off-the-bush-to-take-the/ has been used when scandalous relationships are revealed, but it's also applicable to anything surprising. It's similar to "Don't that beat all?" and "Doesn't that take the cake?" Its etymology is uncertain, although it may have to do with old-fashioned shooting contests, in which someone would drape a rag on a bush as a target, and the winner would be the one who knocked it off.

Chiasumus http://www.waywordradio.org/pickles-and-ice-cream/, also known as antimetabole, is a somewhat symmetrical expression like John F. Kennedy’s famous “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country,” or "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you." The great philosopher Alfred E. Newman once bequeathed to us a bit of wisdom with a somewhat similar structure: We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. But wait, what did the Romans do, anyway, and where does that phrase come from? It pops up at least as early as St. Augustine's writings in the late 4th century, when he moved from Rome to Milan and inquired of a bishop as to whether he should keep his old routines.

Why are skillets also called spiders http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm ? Centuries ago, the three-legged, long-handled pans used for frying actually resembled spiders, and the name stuck.

This week’s episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett and produced by Stefanie Levine.
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Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.

And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard’s leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: words@waywordradio.org

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate
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 2012, Wayword LLC.

Finding that special bottle of wine can be tough, and even tougher if you're not fluent in winespeak. "Strawberries, rhubarb, and hints of leather are present in the nose." Say what? We discuss the sometimes baffling language of wine. Plus, many folks wish each other "Merry Christmas." But why don't we use the word "merry" with anything else? Anyone ever wished you a "Merry Birthday"? Also, Grant shares some of his picks for Word of the Year 2012, and Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents his annual news of the year Limerick Challenge. And do you pronounce the word scone to rhyme with "John" or "Joan"?

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What's the deal with winespeak? Can a grenache really taste like strawberries, rhubarb, hints of leather and dutch cocoa, all over the course of a long swig? While it may sound ridiculous, it does pose the challenge: how would you describe a flavor? It's not easy!

If something's clean as a whistle, that doesn't mean it's shiny and spotless like a silver whistle in a referee's mouth. The idiom refers to a whistle's sound: That sharp, piercing sound is one of the cleanest things known to the ear.

If you say, "He stuck his spoon in the wall," you mean that he died. In German, the person who's deceased has passed along his spoon, and in Afrikaans, he's jabbed his spoon into the ceiling. These expressions reflect the idea that eating is an essential part of life. An article in the British Medical Journal has a long list of euphemisms for dying, from the French avaler son extrait de naissance, "to swallow one's birth certificate," to the Portuguese phrase vestir pijama de madeira, "to wear wooden pajamas."

Why must Christmas be merry, but no other holiday? What if you want a merry birthday? While merry's heyday was the 1800s, you still see the term, meaning "exuberant" or "joyful," in phrases like go on your merry way or even merry-go-round.

If a fellow's getting married, you might say he's getting himself another rib. What slang do you have for getting hitched? Share it with us.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a news of the year Limerick Challenge fit for word lovers and news hounds alike. Try to finish this one: When they speak of their great virtuosity/ The team does not speak with pomposity/ NASA's rolling in clover/They've delivered a rover/ aptly named _______?

What's the past tense of squeeze? Is it squeezed or squoze? While the former is the proper version, squoze is a real word used in several dialects. Ronald Reagan even used it in the 1980s!

When the sky falls, we shall all catch larks. Or in other words, worrying about what's going to happen won't change it. If you've got a proverb you love, share it with us!

Do you pronounce scone to rhyme with Joan or John? In Canada, about 40 percent of English speakers go for the soft o sound, compared to two third of those in the U.K. But in the United States, 90 percent rhyme it with Joan.

Grant has compiled his ninth annual Words of the Year piece for The New York Times Sunday Review section. Among these gems is the verb doxing, as in documenting someone's life and share it on the web. What were your picks for word of the year?

Do you have a saying for when you drive over a bump and plop back down? In the Northeast, it's common to say thank you, ma'am, since the nodding motion of a head going over a bump is reminiscent of genteel greetings. It's also known as a dipsy doodle, duck-and-dip, tickle bump whoop-de-do, belly tickler, and how-do-you-do. Our favorite, though, is kiss-me-quick, a reference to seizing the opportunity when a bump in the road throws passengers closer together. The term goes back to the days of horse-drawn buggies.

Do you have a favorite word? Martha's is mellifluous, which means pleasing to the ear, but goes back to the idea of flowing with honey. If you have a favorite word, take a picture of yourself holding it up and send it in to our Word Wall!

If you're a wine connoisseur, do you remember the moment when it really clicked for you, when you could comprehend and describe the flavors of a wine? In his essay Wine and Astonishment, Andrew Jefford contends that every wine writer and wine lover should remember what it feels like to be astonished by wine. Jefford's essay Source/The Wine Writer is Dead is also directed at wine writers, but contains good advice for anyone interested in crafting prose.

What's your hobby? Or, rather, do you call your interests or passions hobbies at all, or does the word hobby connote something frivolous or strangely obsessive? The term hobby goes back to a nickname for a horse, which transferred to the popular hobby horse toy for children, who'd play with it incessantly, the way one might obsessively fuss over model trains.

A noisy river never drowned nobody. Throw that one back at a blowhard sometime!

R. Alan Smith from San Diego, California, is a strategic advisor. Or is he an adviser? There's been a shift over the years from the -er spelling to the -or, but we're pleased to announce that despite the style guides, advisor is the the overwhelmingly preferred version, and is absolutely correct!
 
Among Grant's Words of the Year picks had to be Higgs boson, that particle discovered by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

When something happens above board, it means things are clear and in the open. But this has nothing to do with being on board a ship. Rather, it comes from the term board meaning "table," as in room and board, and has to do with poker players keeping their cards above board, so as to prevent any underhanded sneaky stuff.

Any public-radio-listening polymath should know about MOOCs, or massive open online courses. These classes and lectures, often taught by the brightest minds at the most prestigious universities, are broadcast online, many times for free. It's being welcomed as a new way for learning to reach people all over the world who'd never have to opportunity to learn this stuff otherwise. Have you taken a MOOC? Let us know how you liked it!

This week’s episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett and produced by Stefanie Levine.
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Support for A Way with Words also comes from National University, which invites you to change your future today. More at http://www.nu.edu/.

And from The Ken Blanchard Companies, whose purpose is to make a leadership difference among executives, managers, and individuals in organizations everywhere. More about Ken Blanchard’s leadership training programs at kenblanchard.com/leadership.

--

A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:

Email: words@waywordradio.org

Phone:
United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673
London +44 20 7193 2113
Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771

Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate
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 2012, Wayword LLC.

This year, generous gifts from people like you made a difference:

We're producing more new episodes than ever. We're taking our mission into communities by partnering with educational and cultural institutions like National University, the San Diego Museum of Art, the State University of New York at Potsdam, Ferrum College, and literacy organizations. And we're working with high school students.

A Way with Words receives no money from any radio station or government agency. No NPR funding. Nothing from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or from stations that air the show. Instead, we rely on your tax-deductible donations.

In fact, A Way with Words is one of just a handful of independent national shows on public radio.

Why do we create and distribute the show at no cost to stations?

Because we believe everyone should be able to learn more about language, no matter who they are, or where they are.

We're creating a place to tell stories about language and share linguistic heirlooms. We're supporting literacy and lifelong learning. We're supporting better human understanding by encouraging better communication. Help us keep making a difference. Make your tax-deductible donation now.

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Sincerely,

Martha and Grant,
co-hosts of A Way with Words