A Moniker for Your Monitor

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Recently, my friend Jane bought a Mini Cooper.

It’s this really cute little car. It’s black and beige.

But you know what? She doesn’t call it my car.

She always, always refers to this car as the pug.

And it sort of looks like one. It’s little and cute. It’s got the same coloring.

And Grant, that got me to thinking about why so many of us tend to bestow names on certain inanimate objects in our lives.

Do you do that?

I do, but it’s only when the thing itself asks me to.

What?

Well, no.

Are you hearing voices?

They’re speaking to me.

The dog, the meter.

What do you mean?

No, if you buy a new computer and you go through the install process, there’s a point at which it says, name this computer.

And usually it defaults to something like Grant Barrett’s computer, which is kind of blah, right?

So I tend to name those things after words that have caught my attention recently.

So my current computer is named utterly, U-T-T-E-R-L-Y.

What?

I just liked the way utterly, that adverb, came from another word having something to do with speech.

But now it’s kind of used to mean to the limit or to the max.

Of course.

You named your computer utterly.

I have a friend who named her laptop Roxy.

You know, there’s something about making technology more friendly,

And I think she felt that that laptop was kind of sexy, too.

Sure, and technology can be difficult, and maybe the humanizing aspect

Means that we are more likely to put up with its quirks.

Yeah, I think you’re right about that.

What inanimate object in your life have you felt strongly enough about to name, and why?

What was it about that object that cried out for an appellation?

You can email us at words@waywordradio.org.

And no body parts, please.

Thank you, Grant.

Only inanimate objects.

All right.

And if you’d like to talk about any aspect of language, grammar, usage, spelling, pronunciation, slang, word origins, whatever,

Call us 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello there, Miss Martha.

This is John calling from Galleon, Ohio.

Are you today? Well, hello. I’m fine. What a gallant greeting. Oh, well, I was calling about

The word druthers, spelled that D-R-U-T-H-E-R-S, and my family is all from Texas. My wife and I

Live in Galleon right now, and we do foster care, and most of the kids that we get are

From inner city Columbus or Cleveland, and we hear, we use the term druthers,

Like mostly when we’re talking about what we want for dinner, as in do you have any druthers?

And we find that a lot of these young people have no idea what we’re talking about.

I was wondering if that’s just a local thing as far as Texas is concerned,

Or what other parts of the country that comes from

And maybe how far back that went.

I don’t know.

What I know about it is that it probably comes from the contraction of I’d rather,

That’s I apostrophe D rather, or would rather, like W-O-L-D-R-A-T-H-E-R,

I’d rather or would rather.

And so you’d say, well, what do you want for dinner?

You’d say, well, I’d rather have spinach and cornbread

And a big plate of fried potatoes, right?

And you can see how when you’re speaking fast or you’ve got a bit of an accent, maybe all that’s left is the D and it joins up with the rather and creates a new word on its own.

It happens now and again in English.

It’s not that common, but it does happen.

Yeah, but I don’t think this is just Texas because I remember growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, we had Druthers restaurants.

They actually had a restaurant chain called Druthers, and the slogan was I’d rather go to Druthers.

Yeah, it’s definitely not Texan.

I would say that it tends to be more rural and more southern.

It is not the kind of thing that you’re going to find in inner city language, not natively.

Although, I put a little footnote here and say that a lot of the language that folks in the inner city speak,

If they’re from the south originally, say the grandparents came up during the war or after the war to work in the factories,

They may very well carry a bit of that southern speech with them.

Well, that sounds great.

Cool. Well, glad to take your call, John.

All right, thank you.

I appreciate your time.

Okay.

Best of luck with everything and the kids and all.

Oh, we do what we can.

All right.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Y’all take care.

Bye-bye.

You too.

I’d rather take lots of calls like that, Martha.

Me too.

If I had my druthers, that’s the way I usually hear it.

If I had my druthers, I’d do this or that.

Yeah, it is usually a plural noun is druthers, and it’s great.

I love it.

Well, we’d love to hear from you.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or email us at words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jim Briscoe. I’m calling from Indianapolis.

How are you?

How are you, Jim? Good, how are you doing?

Fine, coming along just fine. Thank you.

Glad to hear it, Jim.

Good. I had an idea.

As a southerner, it’s always struck me as very curious

That there are a number of interesting southerners

Related to individuals.

These people are mysterious. They are from some remote time, but they nonetheless are kind of funny in the way they’ve worked out in our parlance in the South.

One that particularly interests me and tickles me is the expression to be poor as Joe’s turkey.

Now, in the South, to be poor or poorly can mean that you’re ill, you’re not feeling well, and that’s one thing.

But of course, to be poor as Joe’s Turkey means that you don’t have a dime to your name, you’re impecunious.

But to be poor as Joe’s turkey might refer to your weight.

If you have lost a lot of weight, if you’ve been ill, maybe you are poor as Joe’s turkey and just skinny, even emaciated.

And with your way with words, I wonder if you have a way of tracing that.

Who was Joe?

And what did his turkey have to do with any of that?

All right. Well, let’s ask you a question here.

Let’s just review. You’re talking about the expression poor as Joe’s turkey, P-O-O-R-A-S-J-O-E apostrophe S-T-U-R-K-E-Y, poor as Joe’s turkey, right?

That’s right.

Well, Jim, what if I told you that the more common person to own the turkey wasn’t Joe, but Job?

J-O-B from the Bible.

Well, that fell away. The pronunciation Job fell away, and in the usual way of these things, evolved to Joe’s turkey, as I heard it as a youth coming up.

-huh. Well, you know who Job was in the Bible, right? He was that righteous man, and then Satan dares God to deprive him of everything to see if he remains righteous.

And then God destroys his family and takes away his house and his possessions.

You remember that story?

Yes, certainly, certainly.

Afflicted with the boils and sitting on the ash heap, scraping his skin with broken pottery.

I mean, Job was in poor, poor shape.

Did he have turkeys? I don’t recall those from the Bible.

Well, no, turkeys are a New World animal. I don’t think they had those.

I don’t think they had those back in the day.

He migrated to the Western Hemisphere sometime.

Yeah, well, my hunch here is this is just a particularly glorious expression

That pushes the simile even further.

It’s not just poor as Job, but poor as Job’s poor turkey, as ugly and scrawny, as emaciated as you’re talking about.

That’s doubling it.

That’s adding insult to injury, isn’t it?

It is.

I think it is.

And, you know, one other expression that I’ve seen like this using Job’s turkey is, you remember in the Bible, Methuselah?

Yes.

He was Noah’s grandfather, and he lived to a ripe old age of 969 years.

Yes, I remember the tale of that.

In the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, there’s a reference to some hoss, some horse.

I’ve seen the expression in the past, old is Methuselah’s cat and as poor as Job’s turkey.

Oh, -huh.

That’s interesting.

Well, certainly you hear old is Methuselah.

Yeah.

I haven’t heard it linked that way.

Yeah.

Interesting.

So I think we’re talking about a biblical expression.

I’m not sure how far back it goes, Grant.

As far as I can find, about 1816, actually.

There’s some history here to this.

Well, thank you so much for calling, Jim.

It’s a great question.

Oh, thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Goodbye.

We’d love to hear about your Southern expressions

Or something that you’ve long said

And just now started to think about

Where in the world did that come from?

The number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Phil Morphew.

Hi, I’m Phil. Where are you calling from?

Indianapolis.

Great. What are you calling us about?

I’m calling about the word vet, used as a verb.

I had a discussion here with my friend Mary Kapoor about this word,

And I mentioned to her that it seems to me that the word is used more frequently now

Than I recall of being used.

And in fact, we both wondered about the derivation of the word

And also when the word came into more common usage,

If that indeed has occurred.

If you look in the newspaper archives,

You’ll find that as late as the early 1980s

That people were writing to newspapers to say,

What is this word vetting that you’re using?

Or why are you using the word vet or to vet over and over?

And what brought about the use of this Britishism in the newspaper.

And William Sapphire commented on it at the time,

And he said more or less the same thing,

That he felt that it was still relatively new.

This is the early 1980s.

So I’m not surprised that you feel like it’s still new to you, too.

I see.

So your instincts are pretty good there.

Yeah.

What’s really kind of astonishing, though,

Is that it took as long as it did to enter English,

And to me, it feels really at home in American English now, doesn’t it?

Oh, yes, yes, very much so.

I don’t have any kind of tinge at all that it’s a foreign term or that it’s brand new,

Although, you know, I’m only 38, so what does that say?

But you know what the backstory to this word is?

Maybe you know this.

Did you know that it comes from the word veterinarian?

Does it?

Yeah, the animal doctor, which it’s interesting.

There’s a horse racing usage where the vet had to look at horses,

Let’s say the mid-1800s or so, in order to verify that they could race,

That they weren’t injured or that they hadn’t been messed with, say,

By the jockey or the horse owner in order to make the horse lose

So they could win their bets or make the horse win, juicing it up or something.

And so the veterinarian had to vet the horse.

And then it became a general use term where you would just verify anything

Or substantiate or examine something.

And thus we get the use that we know it today.

I see.

I wonder how many of our politicians that use it frequently even know the story that you’ve just told us.

Well, there we go.

Good question.

But if they did know, would it change the way they use the word?

Maybe not.

Probably not.

I find it significant that politics is often, particularly in election years, is often called a horse race,

And there is a lot of vetting in that particular horse race.

-huh, -huh.

But it has taken on a life of its own.

I mean, people don’t.

Yeah, it’s a perfectly good word.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, Philip.

Glad to help, Philip.

All right.

All right.

Have a great day.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about political language or a question about the history of a word

Or a question about how to spell something correctly, whatever it is, give us a call.

1-877-Wayword.

That’s 1-877-929-9673.

Coming up, we’ll have a visit from Mr. Quiz.

That’s next on A Way with Words.

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And we’re joined once again by our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hello, John.

Hello, Martha.

Hello, Grant.

How are you, John?

What’s cooking?

Well, I had a few friends over the house the other day for a puzzle party.

Too bad you guys couldn’t come, but they were hardcore puzzlers,

And we were solving a suite of puzzles, which we like to call a puzzle extravaganza.

I could have handled your coat check.

That’s about as I would have done.

We could have used that.

We could have used a coachek person.

You got a puzzle over there?

I do have a puzzle, yes.

I call this one the yo-yo quiz, and you’ll soon see why.

Because it’s for a couple of yo-yos.

That’s right.

And because of the following reason.

Let’s talk about the word turn, okay?

T-E-R-N.

T-U-R-N, turn.

Turn.

Okay.

Now, if the word turn is followed by up, it’s a phrase meaning to appear.

I lost my keys.

I hope they turn up soon.

But if turn is followed by down, it means to reject.

I’m flattered, but I have to turn down your offer.

Got it?

Yes.

Why aren’t these seesaw words?

Okay.

Now this is a seesaw quiz.

Welcome to my seesaw quiz.

You’ll soon see why it’s a seesaw quiz.

I’ll give you two definitions.

The first defines a phrase containing the answer followed by the word up.

The second defines a phrase containing the answer followed by the word down.

Okay.

So I’m looking for one word.

One word.

Answer up.

Answer down.

For example, if I said with up, this means to save all the data on your computer’s hard drive just in case.

With down, it means to retreat or no longer threaten.

The answer word is?

Back.

Back is correct.

Back up or back down.

Right.

Back up your hard drive, back down from a fight.

Good.

Great.

Let’s go.

Here we go with the roller coaster quiz.

Here’s the first.

With up, it means to withstand.

With down, it means to apply yourself to a problem.

Buckle up, buckle down.

No.

Butch, no.

First one means to withstand.

Right.

Bear up, bear down.

That’s it.

Bear up, bear down.

Good.

Here’s the next.

With up, it means to be overcome emotionally.

With down, it means to suppress.

To tear up or to tear down?

That’s what I was, I went to the same place.

Tear or tear.

I don’t do any pronunciation.

Oh, you won’t do that at all.

Any pronunciation, homophonic wordplay.

So it’s the same word in both cases.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, so.

What’s the clue again, please?

With up, it means to be overcome emotionally.

Excuse me.

With down, it means to suppress.

Tear up and tear down.

I don’t know.

To be overcome emotionally.

Choke.

Something up.

Choke up.

Choke is right.

Oh, okay.

And then to choke down.

I’m not going to say.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Here’s the next one.

With up, it means to laugh uncontrollably.

With down, it means to become more strict about an issue.

To bust up or to bust down.

No?

Yeah, bust down.

I’ve never heard bust down.

No, you haven’t heard bust down?

I know you’re trying to popularize it, but it’s just not working as well as you think it is.

It’s a dance.

It’s a move.

Everyone’s doing it.

Everyone’s doing the bust down.

How about crack?

Crack is good.

In this case, crack is good.

Sure.

Usually I say no to crack, but in this case, yes.

To crack.

Crack up, crack down.

Here’s the next.

With up, it means to rise from a seated position.

With down, it means to boogie, oogie, oogie.

Get.

Get.

Get up.

Get up.

Get down.

911 is a joke in your town.

Get up.

Get up.

Nice.

Very good.

What is that from, Grant?

That’s Public Enemy.

Oh, all right.

All right.

Here’s the next.

With up, it means a satire or parody.

With down, it’s an English term meaning to suspend from university.

Rusticate down?

That doesn’t work.

Does one send down a bad student?

Yes, one does indeed.

Send down.

Send up is a parody.

Send down.

Send down.

You better take care.

Okay.

You better take care.

Send in the clown.

Okay.

Here’s the last one.

With up, it means to improve, usually in small but perceptible ways.

With down, it means to land after a flight.

So touch up and touch down.

Touch up and touch down.

Very good.

I might touch up a photograph to fix the blemishes, right?

That’s true.

Yes.

I have two extras.

You want to do them?

Yeah.

Why not?

Go for it.

Why not?

With up, it means to maintain a required pace.

With down, it means to prevent from progress through force or intimidation.

So keep up and keep down.

Very good.

Yes.

And here’s the last one.

Well, the last bonus.

With up, it means reverse peristalsis.

With down, it means to begin a fight.

Or to play gravy music.

So up, chuck, and down.

No, down, chuck.

Down, chuck.

It could also mean to…

Throw up and throw down.

Yes, throw up and throw down.

Throw down is a fight.

That’s right.

That’s right.

Right.

Oh, man.

John, that was great.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you, John.

It was fantastic as always.

As always.

We like being stumped.

We sound like smarty pants know-it-alls on the air, but the truth is you show us up.

No, you guys are great.

I’ll see you next time, guys.

All right.

Bye-bye, John.

All right.

Well, if you’d like to talk about prepositions, grammar, slang, punctuation, or words and how we use them, you know the number.

It’s 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

You can also send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Jessica Martinez calling from San Diego, California.

Hello, Jessica.

How are you?

I’m doing great.

How are you both doing?

Doing great.

We’re glad to hear from you.

What’s up?

I had a couple questions, and they’re all sort of separate but related.

And it’s on how to begin a path towards building a more savvy or richer vocabulary.

I was wondering if you all, you know, had a pool of books or recommendations as far as, you know, being helpful.

And especially with retaining words, any, you know, tips or tricks, techniques on how to retain certain words you come across that you find you’d like to, you know, keep in your vocabulary.

Well, what have you tried so far, Jessica?

First of all, I try to do, actually, is I try to see if I can guess words that I’m not familiar with, which I come across, you know, based on where it’s used.

Then I’ll find the definition, and I try to read a little bit more about, you know, the history behind it.

And then I will just try to, you know, read over these words and just kind of practice them,

And then later apply them.

But I was just wondering if perhaps, you know, you had some other techniques as far as, you know,

Retaining them and not forgetting, because I tend to be very forgetful.

I need to constantly kind of read things over several times before I can actually remember them.

Well, Jessica, I hope you’re relieved to hear that you are doing it exactly right.

Oh, okay. That’s great.

That is the best way to learn new words.

It’s not to buy books that have SAT vocabulary.

It’s not to go out and look for these lists of difficult words that are on the Internet.

Or it’s not to, I don’t know, trust somebody when they tell you that these are the hundred words you need to know to have a successful career.

It’s to read good literature and then to make notes when you find a word you don’t know.

If you look in the files and papers of all the best writers over the last several hundred years, they’ve all done this.

This is how they add words to their own vocabulary.

So it’s time-tested, and it maybe sounds a little dorky to take notes while you’re reading.

Because, you know, sometimes we feel like reading is supposed to be about pleasure,

And if you’re writing something down, then maybe you’ve turned it into a task,

And something that’s supposed to be simple and pleasurable has suddenly become a chore, maybe.

But really, you should, you know, if you read a book, say, of 1,000 pages or 500 pages,

You should come away with several note cards with 25 to 50 words on them.

I mean, any book will do this.

Just pick a Dickens novel, and you’ll come away with tons of stuff.

And once you get attuned to finding words, and maybe you’re there already,

Where your eye just lights on these words, you’re like, aha, there’s another one, and you write it down.

It becomes kind of a scavenger hunt.

And the pleasure increases as you’re reading these books

Because you say, oh, here’s another one I can add to my vocabulary.

Right, right.

Okay, I’m with you.

So I’m not alone, and that’s great.

So you’re saying that reading them in context is more helpful

Than just looking at a list cold or flashcards or something like that.

Absolutely.

I mean, I don’t want to turn this too much into a wonky conversation, you two,

But I should tell you that there’s plenty of study that has been done

About how people learn language and learn vocabulary.

And it is conclusive that context,

Seeing a word in its natural environment,

Is the best way to learn what a word means.

And I know I’m a dictionary editor,

And I write definitions, and I work on dictionaries.

That’s one way to do it, but it’s a shortcut.

Really, the long way to do it

Is to find the word in multiple contexts,

And then you’ll learn from those multiple contexts

All of its different nuances and all the different shades

And pastels and all the different ways that it can be used.

So we haven’t given you any books of lists of words,

But I think we’ve given you the best way to go, Jessica.

It makes total sense.

Okay, great.

Thanks for calling, Jessica.

Thank you so much for having me, and you guys have a wonderful day.

Okay.

You too. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

That’s wonderful.

The passion for learning.

If you’ve got a question about anything related to language,

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673,

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Terry Jacobs calling from Milwaukee,

And I had a question about the word Latino.

I was wondering if you could comment about the derivation of where the word came from,

Referring to people of Latin American descent.

It seems to me that the word Latin might have come from Italy,

But obviously this is Hispanic-related Latino phrasing.

Do you have any insight on that?

Yeah.

As far as we know, it’s probably a shortening of Latino Americano,

Which is somebody from Latin America.

Are you asking for a particular question?

Well, the question is the word Latin refers to a place in Italy,

And where Latin America, even for that matter,

Why did it acquire the name Latin America?

Why did it acquire the name Latin?

Well, first of all, you’re right.

People from Italy can be said to be Latin,

As well as people from Portugal, Spain, and France,

Because all of these countries speak languages derived from Latin.

That’s where describing them as Latin comes from.

And, Martha, that’s the same for Latin America, too.

It’s about the language and the heritage that goes along with that language, right?

Right, the linguistic heritage, yeah.

Okay, so it’s from the language that we all share.

That’s right.

Romance language.

Well, the Latin-based languages, that’s right.

Exactly right.

So does that help?

Is that what you were looking for?

Yeah, that’s great.

Okay, thanks again for being there for us.

You’re welcome.

Thank you for calling today, Terry.

Take care.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

You know, Grant, more and more you hear the term Latino used as a kind of term of ethnic pride versus Hispanic.

You know, Hispanic is more of the overarching word that refers to anybody who speaks Spanish as a native language,

Whether they’re from the Americas or from Spain.

But Latino refers specifically to people from Latin America.

And there are a lot of people, especially here in California,

Who prefer the term Latino as opposed to Hispanic, partly because of grammar,

Partly because it’s more like Spanish,

Because you can describe somebody as a Latino if he’s male or a Latina if the person is female.

But it’s interesting because it’s a little tricky in that in places like, say, Miami or Texas,

You’re going to find people using the term Hispanic more than Latino.

There’s definitely regional centralization on these terms, right?

And some of it even boils down to individual personal preference.

Right, exactly.

I mean, I’ve talked to plenty of people from Latin America who are fine with either Latino or Hispanic.

I know we’re going to hear about this from our listeners, especially here in San Diego.

But, you know, another thing that I was thinking about along those lines is the fact that I know plenty of people from Latin America who say, why use those terms at all?

I mean, I’m from Argentina.

Argentina’s different from Bolivia.

Don’t just paint us with a broad brush.

Right.

It’s very similar to saying, oh, he was an African man.

You’re like, wait a second.

Africa is a really big continent.

Exactly.

Was he from Congo or Angola?

There’s a big difference between those countries.

Exactly.

Well, if you have a question about language for us, llámanos.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or send your preguntas to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Martha, this is Mike Miller from San Diego.

Hiya, Mike. How are you?

I’m fine, thank you.

Welcome.

I’ve had a very frustrating search for the origin of the word stingery,

The name given to a part of San Diego’s Red Light District.

Oh, yeah?

Most of the sources give a definition as a stingray,

But there’s a 1905 book by E.W. Horning titled Stingery set in Australia,

Which the title page defines as a fancy bushranger, a dandy outlaw, a common robber under arms.

But nothing that gives us a hint as to how the word came to be associated with San Diego’s red light district.

I’m hoping you all can help me.

Wow.

That’s an interesting word, stingaree, S-T-I-N-G-A-R-E-E, right?

Right.

Have you seen signs with that on it or what?

There’s a nightclub sort of cabaret type place downtown named Stingaree.

But beyond that, I haven’t been able to find anything out about it.

Is this a burlesque nightclub?

Are there ladies taking off their clothes there?

No.

You know, I’m looking at the pictures of it on the web,

And it looks like a very elegant, a very swank type of place.

This is in San Diego right now?

Yes.

Wow.

That’s interesting.

Stingery.

I have to say I’m not surprised at all that the Chamber of Commerce

Or the City Council or whoever is in charge of naming things in San Diego

Wouldn’t, I’m not surprised they wouldn’t use stingery to name a district because it’s

Got some connotations that aren’t exactly savory.

Did you come across uses of stingery to mean a type of con game or confidence game?

No.

Yeah, it’s basically shortchanging somebody.

It’s getting more money back when you bought something than you were supposed to get.

Also, you may have run into this before.

Stingery means penis as well, especially in old blues songs.

There’s a line in one from the late 1920s.

It goes,

It may be hot as a blazes and scorch my stingery,

But the old hell of the Bible is hell enough for me.

The idea here with stingery meaning penis is that

It’s kind of equating the stinger of the stingray to the stinger of a man.

And stinger itself was also a slang term for penis in the 20s and 30s.

So you’ve kind of got this double whammy here.

Well, actually, triple whammy.

Especially for San Diego, you’ve got stingrays evoking the idea of the sea or ocean going and so forth, right, or sailors coming ashore.

You’ve got the idea of petty crime, which I guess you would find in a rough and rowdy district.

And then you’ve got stingray evoking maybe the sex trades or prostitution or men who were up to no good in search of a good time.

Yeah, right.

Well, Michael, is that at all the answer you expected?

That’s not the answer I expected, although I suspected that it had to do with the prostitution

Because it was laid into the red light district, and the Stengel Reed district was officially closed in 1912.

And when the cops clamped down on it, they arrested 138 prostitutes.

And they lined them up before the judge, and the judge fined them each $100,

But told them that he would suspend the fine if they would agree to leave town,

And almost all of them did.

And they all went down to the train station and boarded the train for Los Angeles

After buying round-trip tickets.

So it’s that.

Back to the stingery.

That’s great.

Well, this is all news to me, this fascinating stuff.

Well, thank you very much, though, for finding.

I really appreciate it.

Wow.

Sure, no problem.

It’s the kind of research I love to do.

Take care of yourself.

Right.

Bye-bye, Michael.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about stingeries or anything else, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Don’t touch that dial.

Our slang quiz is next on A Way with Words.

Support for A Way with Words comes from WordSmart, the vocabulary building software.

Improving your vocabulary, reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills will increase your chances for success.

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Go!

You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for another round of Slang This, our weekly slang challenge.

Grant, today’s contestant from the National Puzzlers League is Amanda Yesnowitz from New York City.

Hello, Amanda.

Hi.

I love the fact that your name has both yes and no in it.

It would be even funnier if it was yes, no, maybe, right?

I’ve been called that, but see, I’m a Libra, so yes and no, it makes perfect sense.

Oh, very good.

Well, Amanda, I also understand that when you’re not solving puzzles, you’re also playing with words.

You’re writing, what, lyrics for Broadway musicals?

For Broadway musicals?

From your mouth to Cameron McIntosh’s ear.

Not quite on Broadway yet, but yes, I’m a lyricist and book writer for the musical theater.

Yes.

Okay.

Fancy.

Sounds cool.

Off, off, off, off Broadway or?

Oh, just a couple of off.

So far off it’s in, you know, Vermont.

Very nice people in Vermont.

Nothing wrong with that.

Well, do you have an all-time favorite slang word you’d like to share with us?

Well, I’ll give you a slang phrase that’s sort of on my mind now.

I haven’t used this in a lyric and it’s really tied to Seinfeld, I guess, is where it came from.

But it has come to mean something a little different to me.

I don’t know if you remember, if you’re a Seinfeld fan, but the phrase, Summer of George.

Oh, yes. I remember that very well.

I don’t know what that is.

Well, George Costanza decides, I think it’s at the end of one of the seasons,

That the following summer is going to be the Summer of George,

Where he gets to do things like read books and sleep till 11 and play froth.

And, of course, this doesn’t happen.

He ends up slipping on something, and he breaks his leg,

And he can’t actually have his Summer of George.

But for me, any time I do something sort of self-indulgent or some kind of guilty pleasure,

I call it a summer of George.

So it could be a moment.

It could be a whole day.

It could be a week.

And in the case of the summer of 2008, it was a whole summer.

So it’s just sort of my playful way of self-indulgence, I guess.

I like that.

Well, hey, Amanda, speaking of playful, are you ready to play our game?

I’m very competitive.

So, yes, I think I’m ready.

All right, here we go.

In our quiz today, we have two different things that I’m going to quiz you about,

And each one has two choices.

And here’s the first part.

Every time I blank him at bowling on Nintendo’s Wii, I clean his clock.

So is it every time I brindle him at bowling,

Or is it every time I verse him at bowling?

And I’m spelling brindle, B-R-I-N-D-L-E, and verse, V-E-R-S-E.

Well, brindle definitely, something about the two syllables is very seductive to me.

But as a lyricist, the word verse kind of speaks to me.

So, I think I will go with verse.

All right, so you’re saying every time I verse him at bowling on Nintendo’s Wii, I clean his clock.

Yes?

Yes, that’s what I’m going with.

That is exactly right. It is verse.

Yay.

And it’s interesting where it comes from.

What happens in online world is that when you take somebody on, it’s you versus them.

V-E-R-S-U-S, right?

Well, what they’ve done is they’ve verbed the word.

They turned it into the verb verse, which means to challenge, to fight, to take on, to play against.

And it comes out of online gaming for the most part.

And now you’ll find it in an offline world as well.

All right. So, great. You got one there.

Let’s see how you do in this next one, all right?

Okay.

Here we go.

There will be no smoking on the blank.

The press are invited guests here.

They can either obey the campaign’s rules or find their own transportation.

Is it A, zipper clipper, or B, zooplane?

There will be no smoking on the what?

Well, I think I’m just going to have to be consistent.

Since I’m a lyricist and, of course, very attracted to rhymes, I’ll just go with zipper clipper because, you know, it rhymes.

Zipper clipper.

You know, Amanda, I’m thinking about the White House Press Corps and how there’s some derogatory term for the place where they gather to do the press conferences or the room where the reporters stay.

I’m kind of attracted to zooplane because of that, sort of a derogatory term for the media and the plane that would carry the members of the press.

Well, at least that way one of us will be right.

That’s right. We’ll gang up on Grant.

You all have to agree. I’m not having that.

Well, Amanda, what would you say the zipper clipper is then?

Yeah, I wish I could answer that.

Amanda, just relax. I’ll give you the answer and no hard feelings, all right?

The answer is Zooplane.

And the whole idea is kind of what Martha was getting at.

Martha, you were so close.

The Zooplane is the plane that accompanies the presidential candidates as they fly around the country campaigning.

And it’s the one that holds the press.

Now, the press do pay their own way for that.

But it’s a place of chaos.

If you’ve ever read The Boys on the Bus, this famous 1970s book about the political campaigns of, I believe it was, 74,

They talk about drugs and fights and whatever, all kinds of nonsense on the zooplane.

Wow.

Okay, that makes sense.

You did great.

You got one out of two, which is, that’s a passing grade as far as I’m concerned.

Amanda, thank you so much for playing with us today.

My pleasure.

Thanks, Amanda.

All right, take care.

Bye-bye.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org.

You can also join us here on the show with your questions or comments about slang or any aspect of language.

Call 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.

You can also jump into the fray on our discussion forum.

That’s at waywordradio.org slash discussion.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Joe from Hillsborough, Oregon.

Hiya, Joe. How you doing?

Hey, Joe.

I’m doing well.

I have a friend who has an interesting little quirk.

After we say our goodbyes, he’ll immediately start up another conversation with me.

I’m not talking like hours or minutes later.

He’ll do it immediately after saying goodbye.

I notice that it happens a lot more often now that I use Instant Messenger a lot.

People just say goodbye, and then they’ll start up with the next conversation.

I’m just wondering if there’s any term for this behavior.

Can you give us an example, Joe?

Sure.

I’ll be standing, you know, talking to my friend face-to-face, and he’ll say,

Okay, well, I’ll let you get back to work.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

And then I’ll say, all right, see you tomorrow.

Oh, hey, did you hear that Spore came out last weekend?

And it’s just right immediately after he says goodbye.

And Spore is a video game, right?

Yes, that’s right.

Okay, thanks for the clarification there.

I get this.

I understand what you’re talking about, Joe, because everybody does this.

Even family, friends at work, it doesn’t matter who it is.

They all do it, don’t they? One way or the other.

A lot of people, you know, some do more than the others.

Right. I don’t have an exact term for what you’re describing, which is when a goodbye takes forever.

But linguists who study discourse, which is the way people talk to each other,

And believe me, there are people that study this and write books about it,

They call the whole process of saying goodbye leave-taking.

And they also talk about things like pre-closings.

And what a pre-closing usually is is a word like anyway, right?

You say anyway with that tone and people get that you’re about to wrap up whatever it was you were saying.

Yeah, that anyway carries a whole lot more meaning.

But it’s not just anyway that can be a pre-closing word.

Goodbye itself isn’t necessarily just a closing word.

It can be a pre-closing word too.

So you can say, you know, you say goodbye.

And what you’re doing is kind of starting that ritual of leave-taking.

You say goodbye, but you’re not necessarily going to go unless the other person consents that it’s okay to go.

And so they’re saying goodbye to see if you have anything left to say.

And if you do, once they’ve said goodbye, you’re probably going to spit out whatever is most important, whatever has to be said.

And so that might lead you to a second conversation.

Does that sound familiar, Joe?

Yeah, I think that happens a lot.

I mean, even in my example, I was like, well, I’ll let you get back to work.

You know, starting out with that well.

Right.

And let you get back means I need to get back to work.

Right?

It can be because in order for a leave-taking to be comfortable, everybody has to agree that the leave-taking is okay.

If you just say goodbye and you’re gone, it’s usually considered rude.

Now, instant messenger is a little different.

I have people do that to me all the time.

They just stop chatting and there’s no goodbye at all.

They just walk away from their computer or go idle.

That’s a little different.

But in real life, on the phone or in person, it kind of requires this ritual of negotiation where we don’t exactly say what’s on our mind.

But what’s on our mind is I’m going to be polite to you and offer you a chance to get off of this call or this chat.

And if you want, you can take it.

And if not, go ahead and keep talking.

Does that make sense?

It does.

I think it makes a lot of sense.

And it’s interesting to think about the whole leave-taking ritual.

I hadn’t given it much thought in the past.

Well, Joe, you’re not so much looking for a technical term, or are you?

Because I can give you a more colloquial term.

Ooh, what is it?

No, if you have a colloquial term, that’s great, too.

Well, and I don’t know how idiosyncratic it is, but, Joe, I have a friend who’s a courtly southern gentleman.

That’s the way that I would describe him.

And he calls this practice, which he does all the time at rotary meetings,

When he goes to a rotary meeting and then he’s getting ready to leave

And he talks a little bit more, he talks a little bit more.

He calls that doorknob hanging.

Doorknob hanging.

And I just love that, you know, because he’s got his hand on the doorknob

And then he says, and one more thing, you know.

I love that doorknob hanging.

And I don’t know how common that is, but I like to spread it around.

Doorknob hanging, that’s great.

I can picture it in my mind.

You’re kind of there with the door, a little bit of a jar,

One foot in, one foot out, and maybe you’re going to leave, maybe you’re not.

Right.

Yeah, I think I’ll have to start using that.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Joe, for your call.

Bye.

Well, if you’ve got a question about language or the way people talk to each other,

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or you can email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Mara Spring.

I’m calling from Wisconsin.

Hi, Mara.

How are you doing?

I’m doing great.

What’s on your mind today?

Well, I was listening to a song on the radio, and it had the word, what I believe to be beck and call.

And so a friend and I were talking about this and trying to figure out what a beck is, or if perhaps it is beck and call.

Mm-Do you have a theory about which one it might be?

Well, I think it’s beck and call, but I can’t figure out what a beck is.

Mm-Oh, we can help you with that.

Because the word beck goes all the way back to the 14th century or so.

And a beck was a wordless signal or gesture that’s given by somebody who’s in a position of superiority to get somebody to do something.

You know, like they wiggle their finger to make them come over and people just respond to that.

That’s a beck.

It’s like a command that you give without even using words.

So say, for example, Grant is lovestruck.

You might say in the old days that Grant hangs upon the beck of that young woman that he’s in love with,

Or that young woman has Grant at her beck.

But the expression that stuck was beck and call.

She has Grant at her beck and call.

So if she does a beck that I can interpret as a command or wish,

Or she calls out her wishes, then I would leap to aid her, right?

You’re right. And you do see beck and call.

Sometimes you even see beacon call.

People have misinterpreted it.

But you’re correct, Beck and call.

Great.

That’s very interesting.

Yeah, we think so.

Well, I guess I win.

You do win.

So how are you going to celebrate?

Yeah, what do you win?

Well, I guess just pride.

Well, or maybe you can order this person around for a while, you know?

There you go.

I’ll practice my Beck.

Right.

Practice your Beck, right.

All right.

Well, Mara, thank you so much for your call.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, we welcome your questions about grammar, usage, slang, dialect, old sayings, how to spell, how to pronounce, whatever.

As long as it’s language-related, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

And you can try us on our discussion form at waywordradio.org slash discussion.

Or you can always email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hey, you want to hear a word I just learned?

Oh, okay.

Sure.

I think you’ll like it, and there’s a reason.

Okay.

The word is opifex, O-P-I-F-E-X.

Opifex?

Yeah.

What do you think it means?

Oh, I’m not mispronouncing that.

Opifex.

Well, the fex must be maker.

It must come from Latin facere, meaning to make, right?

That’s right.

It’s a maker of oppies.

Is it wealth?

Is it something that makes you wealthy, like opulent?

Well, no.

It’s a little simpler than that.

It’s Latin for workman or artist.

Oh, like opus.

Right.

So workmaker of anything, really.

Or helper, even.

Okay.

Opifex.

I liked that.

I liked it.

It was a great Latin word.

I’m like, this one should be adopted into English.

Well, Grant, you can probably sell that name to some naming company.

Opifex Solutions.

There we go.

All those companies have solutions in their name.

Opifex Solutions.

We make copiers.

Thank you for sharing.

And if you’d like to share your thoughts about language, call us 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.

Or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello.

You have A Way with Words.

Hi.

My name is John Wilkins.

Hiya, John.

Where are you calling from?

I’m calling from Oceanside, California.

Lovely Oceanside.

What’s up?

That’s right.

Well, my question is how to pronounce the word hegemony.

I was in graduate school, and there was a group of folks there who wanted to say that maybe it was suggested it was maybe hegemony and not hegemony.

And I thought that to be wrong.

And so, you know, kind of as a latter day solution, I’d like a good answer from you if you could.

Hegemony.

And hegemony meaning what?

I guess we should define it first, huh?

Well, hegemony, as proposed by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist, we wanted to talk about the revolution and why it hadn’t happened in certain areas.

And he wanted to say basically that systems perpetuated themselves because of culture, not necessarily because of power,

And that cultural hegemony or ascendancy was a way to keep people hooked into a system like capitalism,

You know, after a recession or a crash when they otherwise wouldn’t.

Say, for example, if, you know, they were culturally, you know, connected to the system,

Then they weren’t willing to overthrow it.

Right.

Okay. And you’re spelling it how, John?

H-E-G-E-M-O-N-Y.

Okay.

I think that your pronunciation is correct, and all of the dictionaries I’ve checked agree with one small footnote.

It is hegemony.

It’s the same G that’s in geriatric or giant.

Okay. Great.

None of them will include the G that is in great or grant.

So it’s hegemony.

What they do include, some of them, is the alternate pronunciation of hegemony.

That is not common, not standard, and probably going to get you laughed at if you’re speaking at the UN.

Well, it still seems like it’s a very similar G in either case.

Right.

Is that so?

The G is the same, but I just wanted to point out there is another way to emphasize the word.

Okay, I see what you’re saying.

But hegemony, hegemony, hegemony, hegemony, that’s the one that you want.

Hegemony.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I mean, you can find lists of all the different ways that it’s been pronounced,

But I would agree with Grant.

It’s that soft G.

It’s the same G that you see in, well, you mentioned geriatric, perfect example.

Also from that same combination of Greek letters.

Right.

Okay, well, I hope we’ve settled this for you.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

You’re welcome, John.

All right.

Take care.

Thanks, John.

Anytime.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Let’s put this on the list of words that I did not know how to pronounce

Until I turned to the dictionary and had to repeat it to myself a dozen times

Just to make sure I got it right.

I have one of those running lists.

How about homogeneity?

Homogeneity, homogeneity.

Right, exactly.

There’s this whole class of word that you encounter in written language

Long before you ever have a need to speak it.

And this is definitely in that list.

Yep, yep, yep.

Well, if you’ve got a question about a word

And how best to pronounce it,

We’d like to give you a hand with that.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673,

Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

That’s our show for this week.

If you didn’t get on the air today, don’t worry.

You can leave us a message anytime, day or night.

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Stefanie Levine is our senior producer.

Our technical director and editor is Tim Felten.

Tim also engineered our theme music.

Kurt Conan produced it.

We’ve had production help this week from Michael Bagdasian.

From Studio West in San Diego, I’m Martha Barnette.

And from the Argo Network in New York City, I’m Grant Barrett,

Inviting you to join us next week right here on A Way with Words.

Chaucito.

Bye-bye.