A Way With Words (Language)
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- Host: Martha Barnette, Grant Barrett
- Public radio's lively hour-long program about the English language. Co-hosts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett take calls from listeners about linguistic disputes, grammatical pet peeves, the origins of words and phrases, and curious regional expressions.
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English Down Under - 5 Jan. 2009
Mon, Jan 5
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[This episode originally aired October 11, 2008.]This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andkangarooster? 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....
Coinkydinks and Big Boxes - 29 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 29
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[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...
Automobile Words of the Year - 29 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 29
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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...
Cut to the Chase - 22 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 22
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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...
Almost Up to Possible - 15 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 15
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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=usaci=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,...
I Can Has Shimmery Eyez - 15 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 15
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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...
The Lipstick Express - 15 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 15
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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...
Never Bolt Your Door with A Boiled Carrot - 8 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 8
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[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...
PUMA (minicast) - 8 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 8
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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...
Moonbats and Wingnuts - 1 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 1
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[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...
Ground Game (minicast) - 1 Dec. 2008
Mon, Dec 1
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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...
Nuke the Fridge - 23 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 24
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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...
Dust Bunnies and Ghost Turds - 23 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 24
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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...
A Year of Words - 17 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 17
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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...
Pwned Prose, Stat! - 10 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 10
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[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...
Of Gossamer and Geese (minicast) - 10 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 10
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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...
Hair of the Politics that Bit You - 3 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 3
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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'...
Language Headlines (minicast) - 3 Nov. 2008
Mon, Nov 3
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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...
Riddled Through With Riddles - 27 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 27
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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...
A Moniker for Your Monitor - 20 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 20
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This week on A Way with Words: Fess up: Do you have a pet name for your car? How about your computer? Martha and Grant discuss the urge to give nicknames to inanimate objects in our lives. Also, why do we speak of 'vetting' a political candidate? And what in the world is a 'zoo plane'?Fess up, now: Do you have a pet name for your car? Or maybe you spend so much quality time with your computer that you've given it a particularly affectionate moniker? What is it about inanimate...
Darwinism and the Dictionary (minicast) - 20 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 20
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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...
English Down Under - 13 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 13
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This week, Martha and Grant discuss terms from Australia, including aerial ping-pong, pumpkin squatter, andkangarooster? 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,...
Reading the OED from A to Z - 13 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 13
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Reading the OED from A to Z (minicast)Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics' puzzlement, was Shea's new book, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 pages. Martha talks about what he learned along the way.http://ammonshea.com/oed.html Years ago, I covered a story for a sports magazine about Tori Murden, a woman trying row a...
Never Bolt Your Door with A Boiled Carrot - 6 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 6
Listen
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...
Language Headlines (minicast) - 6 Oct. 2008
Mon, Oct 6
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The world of politics tops this week's language headlines, including an explanation of the Bradley effect, and the ongoing debate over bilingual education. Also, what does the word fubsy mean? Grant has the answer, and reports about a new favorite blog described as 'LOLcats for smart people.'Ever since it started looking like Barack Obama was more than a long shot for his party's nomination, pollsters, and pundits have been talking about the 'Bradley effect.' It's when polls show a black...
The Txting Db8 - 29 Sept. 2008
Mon, Sep 29
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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...
Regional Food Names: When Is a Milkshake Not a Milkshake? Minicast - 29 Sep
Mon, Sep 29
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Regional Food Names: When Is a Milkshake Not a Milkshake?We asked you to tell us about odd regional food names, and boy did you oblige! Martha reads some of your letters about whoopie pies, hot tamales, pretzel salad, and coolers, plus the frappe vs. milkshake controversy.Welcome to another minicast of A Way with Words. I'm Martha Barnette.A while back, we talked about how the name of a particular food that you grew up with might be utterly mystifying to someone from another part of the...
Moonbats and Wingnuts - 22 Sept. 2008
Mon, Sep 22
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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...
Antipodes and Grooks Minicast - 22 Sept. 2008
Mon, Sep 22
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A listener in Brazil challenges Martha's pronunciation of the odd English word antipodes. Their email exchange leads Martha to muse about a favorite collection of poems, where she first encountered this word....Recently on our show, I made a linguistic boo-boo. Did you catch it?We were talking about the word 'podium.' A listener named Joel called to say that the word 'podium' originally denoted something you stand on. But more and more, people are using it to mean something you 'stand...
Pwned Prose, Stat! - 15 Aug. 2008
Mon, Sep 15
Listen
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...
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