Post edited 11:03AM – Feb-22-10 by Kaa

Graydar, huh?

You mentioned that it's a word formed by taking the '-DAR' off of 'RADAR' and is generally used to connote finding anything. Gaydar, graydar…would Darth Va-DAR find evil overlords? But I digress.

What is the term for doing that? The word RADAR is an acronym, and the '-DAR' "suffix" doesn't MEAN anything, but people split it off and use it AS a suffix to mean something anyway.

Same thing with '-palooza' and '-rama.' So I can have a Feedback-a-Palooza on a podcast where they devote one episode out of every few just to deal with feedback from listeners. Or a Geek-o-Rama which is where a LOT of geeks gather together at one time. (I'm not sure where the '-rama' came from, but I'm pretty sure 'lollapalooza' is where we get the '-palooza' one.)

Or "marathon" which was originally a place name, and they've now taken the '-thon' off the end and use it to mean anything that goes on for a long time. Sale-A-Thon, read-a-thon, telethon, movie-thon. (Talk about going on for a long time!)

Or how about '-teria.' From the online etymology dictionary, I learned that '-teria' originally meant "a place where work is done," but that after it got spliced with 'cafe' into 'cafeteria,' the suffix '-teria' now means more along the lines of 'serve yourself' or where there is an implication of a large number of selections. For instance, I've heard my friends refer to the liquor store as a "booze-a-teria."

And finally, the '-holic' was ripped unceremoniously off the end of 'alcoholic' and now is used to mean 'addicted to,' even though the 'hol' part was just the end of the word 'alcohol' and the 'ic' was an adjectivizing (is that a word?) suffix. Chocoholic, sexaholic, carbaholic, and sleepaholic are all words I've heard that use it.

So…what do we CALL this…thing? Where you separate part of a word that isn't a suffix and turn it into one? IS there a word for this?

"Morphological reanalysis." That's much less interesting than I was hoping. I was hoping there'd be a '-nym' word.

Kaa said:

Same thing with '-palooza' and '-rama.' So I can have a Feedback-a-Palooza on a podcast where they devote one episode out of every few just to deal with feedback from listeners. Or a Geek-o-Rama which is where a LOT of geeks gather together at one time. (I'm not sure where the '-rama' came from, but I'm pretty sure 'lollapalooza' is where we get the '-palooza' one.)

The "-rama" suffix originally belonged to "panorama", from the Greek meaning "all sight".

A more recent detached suffix you didn't mention is "-gate" for any sort of political scandal. The original there was, of course, "Watergate" from the name of the hotel and office complex where the original burglary occurred, which then spread to "Contragate", "Whitewatergate" and "Monicagate". (Best use I've run across was a British scam that the press dubbed "Double-billingsgate".)

Dang.

I get a reading comprehension fail, as I now see that Kaa mentioned this exact thing a few posts above. Sorry…

Prokdoc said:

During the discussion of old insults I couldn't help but be reminded of Monty Python's Holy Grail.

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I think I need to get me .

That was my call in to the show, BTW

Glenn said:

Here's a new one on me. I don't think it has legs.
snowacane

In the hardest-hit areas, it will seem more like a "snowacane," as a mere blizzard may not adequately describe conditions of this soon-to-be powerful nor'easter.

I'm still waiting for someone to come up with "snowlocaust".

Post edited 8:24AM – Feb-28-10 by Hankk

> Beware of false friends, those words that don't translate the way you'd expect. For example, the word "gift" in German means "poison," and
> the Spanish word "tuna" means "the fruit of the prickly pear cactus." These tricky lookalikes are also called faux amis.

As per your request for more false friends, you mentioned 'soy'. My Spanish is fine, but this one did catch me one time. I was driving near Mexico City and stopped at a restaurant called '100% Natural.' It's a mostly veggie place which suited my vegetarian gf. I read the menu, and found they had an item called 'Yo Soy 100% Hamburguesa.' So I ordered it, expecting to get a soy burger. But no — it was a full meat burger, and a true hamburger, just as the name said. What I should have looked for instead was a 'hamburguesa de soya'…

And don't forget about 'embarazada' — which does not mean 'embarrassed,' but rather, pregnant.

Post edited 3:53PM – Mar-03-10 by Shelterdogg

I can't believe you dived into this topic without including a reference to "mugwumps." Correct me if I'm wrong, but a mugwump is a politician who sits on the fence with his "mug" on one side and his "wump" on the other."

Grant Barrett said:

This week, it's the language of politics. Martha and Grant discuss two handy terms describing politicians: far center and snollygoster. Also, a presidential word puzzle, false friends, spendthrifts, and a long list of 17th-century insults. So listen up, all you flouting milksops, blockish grutnols, and slubberdegullions!

Listen here:

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(23.5 MB).

To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using .

Grant explains the meaning of the new slang term "far center," and Martha tries to revive an antiquated term meaning "a corrupt politician," snollygoster.

Careful about how you spend your money? Then you're said to be "thrifty." So why is someone who isn't frugal called a spendthrift?

Pommy is an often derogatory nickname used by Australians for the English. Does it come from an acronym for either "Prisoner of Mother England" or "Prisoner of Her Majesty"? The more likely story has to do with sunburn and pomegranates.

An older woman with a knack for finding older men to date? That's what you call someone with excellent graydar.

Speaking of politics, Quiz Guy Greg Pliska presents a puzzle featuring the names of U.S. presidents.

Beware of false friends, those words that don't translate the way you'd expect. For example, the word "gift" in German means "poison," and the Spanish word "tuna" means "the fruit of the prickly pear cactus." These tricky lookalikes are also called faux amis.

Is the term "refer back" redundant?

Martha reports that listeners have been remember a word for "someone who's exceptionally good at packing things in a confined space." She thinks she's found a winner: stevedore.

To keep something at bay means to maintain a safe distance from it. But does this expression derive from an old practice of using bay leaves to ward off pestilence?

A Tallahassee caller wonders about the name for terms that are capitalized in the middle, like MasterCard and FedEx. Grant explains that they're commonly called CamelCase, not to be confused with Studly Caps.

Grant shares some slang he's found while exploring the game of Skee-Ball, including to hit the hundo.

The hosts and a listener in Grand Rapids, Michigan, trade some 17th-century insults. For more, check out these references: .

Chip in!

Post edited 11:03AM – Mar-04-10 by gmlile

In this episode Martha and Grant talked about camelCase and StuDlyCapS. As a pharmacist another capitalization technique immediately came to my mind. Tall man lettering was developed by Food and Drug Administration and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices to emphasize the difference between look-alike drug names with the ultimate goal of reducing medication errors in hospitals and pharmacies. The use of technology to reduce errors is a passion of mine. Drug manufacturers seem to have embraced this technique; I see it on manufacturer stock bottle often. I see VERY FEW doctors' orders that use this technique. I work for a major retail chain and even our pharmacy software and prescription labels lag behind in using this simple and proven-effective technique. Compare both ways below. Which way would you want your prescription written?

guanfacine – guaifenacin
guanFACINE – guaiFENesin

lamivudine – lamotrigine
lamiVUDine – lamoTRIgine

Several examples can be viewed here:

Print out that PDF and take it to your Doctor/Pharmacist and ask if their software incorporates this safety measure. PUT THE PRESSURE ON.

This is reminiscent of the story about GE's initial venture into China, where they had someone translate their company slogan: "GE. We bring good things to life." However, the Chinese translation came out: "GE. We bring your ancestors back from the dead."

You don't have to cross language barriers for a slogan to become embarrassing. In the wake of Toyota's recent problems with "sudden acceleration" and failing brakes, they started taking out full-page newspaper ads outlining the steps they were taking to correct the situation. The tag line for each ad? "Toyota: moving forward".

Post edited 2:53PM – Mar-10-10 by camelsamba

Grant Barrett said:

Grant shares some slang he's found while exploring the game of Skee-Ball, including to hit the hundo.

And in an interesting twist, I was playing Skee-Ball on my iPod touch while riding the bus home when this segment came on! I'm much more like to find the forty than hit the hundo, though.