Post edited 4:46PM – Sep-28-09 by Grant Barrett

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It's a brand-new season of A Way with Words! Grant has big news, too: He's used up his last Metrocard, packed up his belongings, and moved to the Left Coast. He reports on some features of California language there that are already catching his ear. Also in this episode, what's the real meaning of decimate? And what does it mean when someone says don't leave your endgate up?

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A Wisconsin community is about to open its first dog park. But what to name it? "Scentral Park"? "Unleashed"? Martha and Grant try to help.

Why do we call a run-down area skid row? Here's a picture of a skid road:

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Photo from , vol. 19, ed. Charles F. Lummis, 1902, Out West Company, Los Angeles.

A Philadelphia listener has a Yiddish twist on an old palindrome: "Unable I was ere I saw Elba, nu?"

"If you're writing out the names of numbers, what three numbers require six e's and no other vowels?" Quiz Guy John Chaneski has the answer in his latest word puzzle.

Instead of saying "Good-bye" or "So long," a Hoosier says, his great-grandfather used to say, Don't leave your endgate up. What's up with that?

"Are you shining me on?" means "Are you trying to fool me?" But what does shining have to do with tricking someone?

Grant talks about the surprising beauty to be found in, of all things, the names of shantytowns.

Rock climbers use the term beta to refer to any information they receive about a route before climbing it. Is it related to beta as in "beta-testing software"?

The word decimate has a grisly etymology. It derives from a Latin military term meaning "to execute every tenth man in an army unit"—the penalty for a failed mutiny. As a result, some sticklers insist that the English word decimate should be used only to indicate "destroying a fraction of something" rather than "destroy completely" or "utterly wipe out." Who's right?

A Pittsburgh woman reports that when she went away to college, she was surprised to find people correcting her grammar when she'd say things like "the car needs washed" or "the kids need picked up." She wonders if she's been saying it wrong all these years.

There's a new Facebook group called They say that libraries are awesome, B&J ice cream is tasty, so why not combine the two and convince Ben & Jerry's to produce a new flavor with a library theme? Candidates so far include "Gooey Decimal System" and "Rocky Read." Do you have others? Tell us about it in the forum.

A 14 yr-old teenager pronounces the word “bagel” as BEH-gul, rather than BAY-gul. Her family thinks she’s crazy. Who’s right?

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… Read the original blog post.

Post edited 4:47PM – Sep-28-09 by Grant Barrett

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The use of "beta" in rockclimbing and in software development predates its use in games like Everquest by quite some time, but that is indeed an interesting semantic transition in that environment.

For what it's worth, ,though OED has a use from 1978. It is no doubt much older. It does predate the first use of rockclimbing "beta" in print that we know about, which was in the magazine Climbing, October-November 1985, issue 92, page 44 in an article called "Betamax" by Neil Cannon, which directly connects "beta" to "Betamax" and not the software-related beta. Betamax was shortened to "beta" as early as 1977, according to OED.

>>> 'a view with a rheum'

! ! ! Never heard that one, Phil.

LOL re Chunk & White, mpg. And I suppose the pieces of chocolate would be exceedingly short. No unnecessary ingredients.