This episode first aired October 17, 2011. Listen here:

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There’s a Twitter meme going around for books with a letter missing from the title. You can find them through the hashtag #bookswithalettermissing. Can’t wait to read that romp about the sand-covered South, A Confederacy of Dunes.

We usually brandish a weapon, or some object we can wave about. But the definition of brandish can be stretched to include more figurative types of weapons or objects (e.g. seductive body parts).

What does shambles mean? If your house is in shambles, it’s a mess, but before the 1920s, the word shambles referred to a butcher’s bloody bench.

What is a popinjay? Literally a parrot, this term is often used in a military context to refer to a vain or conceited officer with a Napoleon complex. And a bandbox boy? That once commonly referred to an officer who gave excessive attention to his grooming and dress. It’s a reference to “the box used to transport uniforms.”

Our Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game of Name That Nursery Rhyme. The catch is the text has been run through the translation site Babelfish. What happens when Little Bo Peep and Humpty Dumpty go from English to Spanish to Chinese and back again?

What’s the past tense of “plead”? Is it pleaded or pled? Within the legal profession, pleaded is preferred. But in our common vernacular, we tend to use the less traditional “pled.”

If something’s right on the tee na na, it’s just perfect. This phrase from New Orleans has popped up in myriad songs from the region. One interview with the musician Dr. John suggests that tee na na refers to the rear end, or tuchis. Martha speculates that tee na na may have to do with the phrase to a tee.

Lots of people have tweeted their own examples with the #bookswithalettermissing hashtag. Take, for example, that famous guide to Jewish sensuality, The Oy of Sex.

What’s the origin of the phrase “God willing and the creek don’t rise“? It has to do with travel. Back when wagons rode on low gravel roads, you couldn’t pass if the creek level was high.

Regional grammar can be just as rich and diverse as regional vocabulary. The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project has picked up on all the variations in American English usage and plotted them on a Google Map. Turns out that double modals and the positive anymore are popping up all over the country.

Did your hairstylist recommend you use product? Is your company moving product this quarter? The term product is in vogue, mainly for the purpose of simplification.

Why do department stores label their infants’ section “Baby” instead of “Babies’” à la “Men’s” or “Women’s”? For one, the Baby department includes more than just clothes; they’ve got strollers and cribs and pacifiers. Also, the baby of the family has a unique singular identity, unlike the rest of the kids.

Where do we get the expression “more than you can shake a stick at“? It probably just derives from counting. Imagine herdsmen bringing in their cattle or sheep at the end of the day, pointing with a stick in order to do a headcount.

Another #bookswithalettermissing joke: Have you read the book about how 99 cent stores are changing the way we shop in America? It’s called The Little Price.

Pimping med students is a common practice in hospitals. But not that kind of pimping; the term pimp, possibly from the German pumpfrage, meaning “pump question,” refers to the method of tough quizzing that doctors put their young residents through. It generally straddles the border between rigorous initiation and plain bullying.

You know that book missing a letter about the young Southern woman finding peace in a storm? It’s called One With the Wind.

This episode first aired May 5, 2012. Listen here:

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Now that the Encyclopedia Britannica is going to an online-only format, one of many things we’ll miss is the accidental poetry on the books’ spines. In the age of endless digital information, volumes like Accounting-Architecture and Birds-Chess point to the tomes that contain everything you’d need to know and nothing more.

The saying a bad penny always turns up has been turning up in English since the 15th century, when counterfeit pennies would often surface in circulation. As pennies have lost their luster, the phrase has lived on; see the line “Don, my bad penny,” from this season of Mad Men.

What does rolling in the deep mean, as sung by Adele? In her Rolling Stone interview from February, she traces it to British slang for close friends that have each other’s backs.

To take umbrage means to take offense or be annoyed at something. It comes from the Latin umbra, meaning “shadow,” as in umbrella. So to take umbrage is to sense something shady, or suspect that one has been slighted.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game about words and phrases that involve furniture or parts of a house. For example, if you want to see your lover but you only have two hours, that’s a tight window of opportunity. And if you invest in, say, smartphones for pets — only to see your savings go down the drain — we’d say you’ll be taking a bath.

In high school, were you a jock or a nerd? How about a grit, or perhaps a Hessian, hesher, metalhead, or greaser — the dudes with roughed-up denim jackets, metal boots, and cigarettes in their shirt pockets — are an essential part of the student body, but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about their name. What did you call that crowd?

Should the Great Recession be talked and written about as a proper noun? Recessions tend to be vague in their scale and timelines, so it’s problematic to mention them as proper nouns. Perhaps the similarities in sound between Great Recession and Great Depression have encouraged this usage by government officials and members of the press.

In a previous episode, we came upon a word mystery in a 1947 menu from Jackson, Mississippi, that mentions tang. The mystery has been solved! It wasn’t the drink, and it wasn’t the fish; it was Cudahy Tang, one of over a hundred knockoff brands of Spam, a canned meat product.

Which is correct: washrag or washcloth? Whether you use one or the other isn’t likely so much about regional dialects as class differences.

Due to their fondness for treats, tourists in some parts of Michigan are known as fudgies or conelickers. In Vermont and Colorado, they’re called flatlanders. And Californians refer to the Arizona beachcombers and Zonies. What do you call tourists in your area?

Vaccines take their name from vaccinia, the virus that caused cowpox. It was the original ingredient used to vaccinate people against smallpox. Stefan Riedel, a pathologist at the Baylor University Medical Center, offers a detailed history of the centuries-long fight against smallpox.

A collection of Virginia folkspeak from 1912 includes this zinger about a proud person: “He doesn’t know where his behind hangs.” And here’s a choice insult: “I’d rather have your room than your company!”

Do you have a favorite letter? The sound or typeface varieties of a letter can really catch us. For more about the visual and emotional properties of various letters, check out Simon Garfield’s book about fonts, Just My Type. Grant also recommends One-Letter Words by Craig Conley, a surprisingly lengthy dictionary of words made up of just one letter.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired April 28, 2012. Listen here:

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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 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. 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 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.

If you master 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. It hadn’t appeared in any other form of print — meaning it probably is not real — so Grant personally edited out the specious term.

The song Old Dan Tucker has a long history in the United States, going back to the minstrel shows of the 1840s. Martha highly recommends the documentary 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.

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.

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, 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, “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.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired April 21, 2012. Listen here:

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When a car rolls slowly through a stop sign, it’s often called a California stop or a California roll. 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? Turns out the word normalcy was already in use before 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, 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” are used by hospital and emergency medical services workers to 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 is sometimes used by people who want to disguise someone’s true ethnic origins. 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 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 and the O, rly? owl 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.

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 brings their own snacks to the movies.

Do you wash your clothes at a Laundromat or a washateria? 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.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired October 8, 2011. Listen here:

Download audio file (120416-AWWW-Going-All-City-Rebroadcast.mp3)

Download the MP3 here (23.8 MB).

To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program.

Dining on a budget? Just whip up some necessity mess or a potato bargain. That’s a pork, onion, and potato stew popular in Eastern Massachusetts. Or how about some Georgia ice cream? It’s a North Florida term for grits. Martha shares a generous serving of fun food names from the Dictionary of American Regional English (on Twitter as @darewords).

If you’ve accomplished something, go ahead and rest on your laurels. Martha traces this idiom back to Ancient Greece, where victors were crowned with a wreath of bay leaves from the bay laurel tree. In the 16th Century, to retire on one’s laurels referred to “resting after an accomplishment.” Like many inherited idioms, it’s often said today with a tongue in one’s cheek.

The old Brooklyn Dodger Roy Campanella really knew how to set the soup outside! A baseball fan recalls this overheard phrase from a game in the 60s between the Cardinals and the Dodgers, when Campy smacked one over the fence. Grant speculates this usage of “soup” comes from the old slang term for nitrous oxide, a component in souping up cars. Over time, soup came to refer to any enhanced display of muscle or strength.

What would you bring to a pitch-in? An Indiana transplant shares this newly acquired term for a potluck dinner. Martha points out that the Dictionary of American Regional English has a map showing the distribution of the term, and it’s limited almost exclusively to Indiana.

If something’s a peach out of reach, it’s something lovely that you want but just can’t have. A listener shares this and other idioms from the American South.

Our Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game of cryptic crossword clues called Double Definition. For example, if the clue is “trim a tree,” the answer is “spruce.” Or try this one: “crazy flying mammals.” Did you come up with “bats”?

What does it mean to grok the data? A listener from the medical device business wonders about the techie word “grok,” which first popped up in Robert Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.

To grok data means to understand all the information you’re looking at. Grant also mentions Jeff Prucher’s Brave New Words, a dictionary of science fiction terms that have made their way into the English language.

New York seems to have a doguero on every street corner. Grant shares this Spanglish term for “a hot dog vendor.”

What’s it called when saying becomes sayin’? It’s not a trick question; it’s simply called an abbreviation. Grant and Martha settle an English major’s confusion about the possibility of a trickier term. With words like “o’er,” a shortening of “over,” the apostrophe can also be called an apologetic apostrophe, but it’s still just an abbreviation.

The old Yiddish word bupkis, referring to something of little or no value, has of late been split up for dramatic effect. As in, that’s worth all of a bup and a kis!

What’s a doomaflatchie? A listener shares this alternate for doohickie, thingamajig, doodad, or any other one of those whatchamacalits.

Here’s the Tim McGraw song about his doomaflatchie.

If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong. Listeners share some of their favorite paraprosdokians. It’s not the first time Martha and Grant discussed paraprosdokians.

As ubiquitous as social media and blogs have become, people are still reading long form journalism! Grant shares some great ways Twitter has enabled the spread of long essays from sources like The Atlantic and Wired. In addition, services like Readability, Instapaper and Longreads have streamlined the distribution of articles to our myriad devices.

It takes some work for a writer to go all-city — a graffiti writer, that is. An art supplies dealer from Dallas shares some vocabulary from the world of street art. For example, the old act of photographing trains from benches gave birth to the term “benching,” and the act of tagging or doing graffiti is also known as “bombing.” Grant discusses the related term “going all-city“.

Everyone knows about Tang as that orange kick in a glass, but could it also be an entree? A listener from Plano, Texas, found an elderly relative’s plan for family meals from 1947, which lists “tang with molasses” as a main course. If you’ve heard of tang the food, shoot us a message.

If a meeting gets pushed back, does it get postponed to a later time or rescheduled for a sooner one? Grant explains that push back is generally understood to mean “reschedule for a later date,” but Martha recounts a scenario where the opposite definition caused a debacle with deadlines. As always, when in doubt, seek clarification.

Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Thank you to our listeners for this and other modern proverbs.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired October 1, 2011. Listen here:

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Download the MP3 here (23.8 MB).

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What would you wear to an ABC party? Hint: the letters stand for “Anything But Clothes.” Any guesses what you’d wear to a tight-and-bright party? Martha gives a taste of the college party terminology from a slang collection compiled by Penn State student Emily Grier.

Are you left hanging by the invitation “Do you want to come with?” A Milwaukee native is proud of this regionalism, which means “Do you want to come along?” Grant explains that it may be related to the German verb mitkommen, a single word that literally means to “come with.”

If what you’re going to say isn’t more beautiful than silence, don’t say it. Martha shares this proverb, translated from the original Arabic.

If you suffer from restless nights of tossing and turning, you may have a case of the mollycobwobbles. A listener shares this hand-me-down term from her grandmother. Grant explains she may well have combined two English terms dating about 150 years back: mulligrubs and collywobbles. The aptly named affliction usually consisted of the jitters, the shakes, or even the yips.

That little basket that your strawberries and blueberries come in? It’s called a punnet. Just so you know.

Quiz Guy Greg Pliska addles our brains with a puzzle called Odd Couples. See if you can figure out these strange celebrity pairings who share last names. “Anyone? Bueller, Bueller, Bueller” and “Bueller is Bueller is Bueller,” for example, forms the odd couple of Ben and Gertrude Stein. And who else could hit home runs in the bedroom like Babe and Dr. Ruth?

Looking for something that curls your hair, cleans your teeth, and makes childbirth a pleasure? A listener’s mother used that saying in reference to every miracle potion from WD-40 to vinegar. Grant explains that the first known version of this in print dates back to 1919 in Mrs. Lucretia Graves’ Exits from the Pearly Gates, where the advertisements for opium-type substances had less cheek and more sincerity. Grant notes that Google Books has a wealth of examples of old ads that took the saying and used even more elaborate versions to promote everything from tequila to hypnosis.

Is boughten a past tense form of to buy? Grant gives his blessing to its use in informal conversation, but when it comes to formal writing, the word you want is bought.

What are the college kids up to these days? Apparently, they’re busy at darties, or “day parties.” Martha shares this collegiate portmanteau from Emily Grier’s list.

Can sentences end with a preposition? Yes! Grant assures a listener that all experts, including the most conservative of linguists and lexicographers, agree that a preposition as the last word in a sentence is something up with which we shall put.

Tell your Mom the sterling silver stud above your lip isn’t “that dumb thing.” It’s called a Monroe piercing, in honor of Marilyn’s famed beauty mark.

Though the Spanish language, among others, has its quirks and foreignisms, the English language really can’t be touched when it comes to complicated and irregular spelling. Thus, spelling bees are primarily an English-language phenomenon. Grant mentions a few “where are they now?” stories about past Scripps Bee winners. The common thread? If these kids had the discipline to compete in such a high-pressure event, they tend to carry those traits beyond the spelling arena and into their successes later in life.

If something is mathematical, is it cool? According to a mother of two middle-schoolers, that’s exactly what it’s come to mean among the younger set. Then again, irony is also pretty hip. But could her kids be using a piece of ironic slang with confused sincerity? Ahh! Meta-irony! So cool!

If someone’s balloon has lost its string, it means “they’ve come unmoored”. Something unusual or odd has come about in their character. Patrice Evans used the illustration in his description of Tracy Morgan in an article for Grantland (no relation to our show’s co-host).

He thinks he’s a wit, and he’s half right. Though some might attribute the quote to Shakespeare, it’s nowhere to be found in the concordances. Grant explains how many of these witticisms have been tumbled about by old newspaper columnists, humorists, and vaudeville performers. Though their origins are muddled, they’re still a joy to hear and say.

So, can a sentence begin with the word so? Which ones? So is oftentimes used in place of therefore to conclude an explanation, but more people are using it as a general sentence-starter, in the same vein as well. Grant notes that while seemingly misused language may be grating to the ear, it’s more productive not to peeve about it, but instead to record it and add it to the rest of the data we collect about our language. Ultimately, we learn about each other by doing so.

Martha shares a British article that begins, “Boffins have discovered a strange new type of spongy mushroom.” But what, you may ask, is a boffin? The word boffin denotes an intellectual with a specific expertise and general lack of social aptitude. Grant adds anorak to the list of terms for nerds with minimal aptitude for cocktail-party conversations. Here’s to you, boffins and anoraks!

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired Sept. 24, 2011. Listen here:

Download audio file (120402-AWWW-Him-and-I-or-Him-and-Me-Rebroadcast.mp3)

Download the MP3 here (23.8 MB).

To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program.

Ever know somebody whose name makes you do a double-take, like a family physician named Dr. Hurt? An Albany, N.Y. listener shares a game of more positive aptronyms. For example, what do you name your daughter if you want her to be a lawyer? How about “Sue”?

Do you use paper towels or paper towelling? While a listener insists her husband’s wrong for his use of paper towelling, Grant explains how certain nouns take a gerund ending. For example, clothes derive from clothing, and the side of a house adorns siding. In the same way, why not tear a paper towel off a roll of paper towelling?

A veteran broadcaster recalls a brilliant example of sesquipedalian language. Fifty years ago, he stubbed his foot on the beach and a group of college boys told him to go to his parents and get an anatomical juxtaposition of the orbicular ors muscles in the state of contraction on the unilateral calcification of the carbuncular metatarsal. Go get, in other words, “a kiss on the foot.”

Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a Grant and Martha version of The Odd Man Out Game, wherein one term doesn’t belong in the list of four. Take Martha, Irving, Denzel, and Booker. Which one doesn’t fit? It’s Irving, because “Washington” is his first name, not his last.

Does turning up the A.C. make a room cooler or warmer? A listener grapples with multiple meanings of the word “up.” Martha suggests saying, “Turn up the air conditioning,” not “turn up the air conditioner,” just as you say “turn up the heat,” not “turn up” the heater. Grant observes that the English language is imperfect, and we often have to clarify our statements to make sure people understand us.

When it comes to proper grammar, “Where you at?” ain’t where it’s at. A mother is concerned that her child will pick up such malapropisms as “Where you at?” and “My mother and me went to the store.” Grant argues that the redundant “at” has become such a part of our colloquial speech that it isn’t to be chided in informal usage. However, for those formative years of language learning, Grant recommends the book Learner English by Michael Swan.

What do you name your baby if you want her to become a bank teller? “Penny.” And if it’s a boy? Try “Bill.”

If someone offered you a croaker with an old man’s face, would you take it? Here’s a hint: the face belongs to Benjamin Franklin. A Louisiana native shares this rare term for a hundred dollar bill. Grant suspects that it may derive from the French verb croquer, meaning “to be crisp.” It’s mostly used in informal settings, such as horse tracks and neighbor-to-neighbor transactions. What terms do you use for the Benjamins? Here’s a whole stash.

If you’re looking for dictionary recommendations, you’ve tuned to the right program! For comprehensive, desk-dwelling dictionaries, Grant likes the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th Edition, a two-volume set, and the brand-new American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, which contains original etymologies, illustrations, and plenty of guides and charts. The latter publication took nearly ten years to complete, and its authority is worth the investment.

When a minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married?” the father regrettably answered, “Her mother and me.” Well, he regretted it after his daughters ribbed him about his improper grammar — specifically, his disregard for the implied verb. As in, “My wife and I do give this young woman to be married.” Grant and Martha confirm that the implied verb is indeed what seals the deal. Alas, the “me vs. I” squabbles continue!

A physician heard a broadcaster use the term byzantine to describe the current health care system, and wonders about the origin of this adjective. Martha notes that the Byzantine Empire, which began in the 4th century A.D., was notable for its convoluted system of government officials and titled nobility. Additionally, Byzantine art is known for its intricacies and elaborate details. Thus, the word has come to refer to anything exceptionally complicated or intricate.

What do you name a future ophthalmologist? “Iris”!

If a married couple moves because one spouse is relocated for work, is it correct to say the other spouse following them? A listener wonders about the implications of the term “follow,” and how that dynamic works in today’s day and age. Married couples often view themselves as a team of two equals, and sometimes words like “follow” can connote unintended ideas of subservience. Grant and Martha point out that, as relationship dynamics change, so does our language.

If you’d like your son to become a statistician, Martha suggests naming him “Norm”!

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired March 24, 2012.

Listen here: Download audio file (120326-AWWW-Rock-Paper-Scissors.mp3)

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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 one’s phone, was 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 in 1944 to describe the frustrating jargon used by policymakers in Washington. It reminded him of the sound of turkeys gobbling. Incidentally, his grandfather Samuel August Maverick also inspired a term that became popular during the 2008 U.S. elections.

What’s the best way to win at scissors, paper, rock? Grant delves into the game’s various monikers, 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: statistically, scissors is your best bet.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a word 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. It 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 generified. 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 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 1988 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 third or fourth 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 expression in the early 1960s, but like many bits of slang, it soon left its original subculture and entered the mainstream vernacular. There’s no evidence to support the idea that it comes from “keeping up with the Joneses.”

The Southern idiom tear the rag off the bush 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. The winner would be the one who knocked it off.

Chiasumus, 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. Neuman 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 the late 4th century in St. Augustine’s writings, 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 ? Centuries ago, the three-legged, long-handled pans used for frying actually resembled spiders.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired March 17, 2012.

Listen here: Download audio file (120319-AWWW-Mute-Point.mp3)

Download the MP3 here.

To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program.

Why do we make a hand-crank motion when asking someone to roll down their window? After all, in most new cars, that’s done with the press of a button. An outmoded gesture like this is similar to a skeuomorph, a design element that still used even though it no longer has a function. For example, smartphones still use images of old handsets or tape recorders to indicate phone and voicemail functions.

“What’s your name?” “I’m Puddin’ Tame, ask me again and I’ll tell you the same!” This and other rhymes, such as “What’s your number? Cucumber!” derive from French, English, and American children’s folklore that dates to at least as early as the 17th century. Iona and Peter Opie have collected a bundle of these children’s sayings.

What’s it called when someone rolls past a stop sign without coming to a complete stop? People across the country have coined terms like California roll or California stop, New York stop, and Michigan stop as a way of expressing pride in their local delinquencies.

Like the famous murmuration of starlings, a dole of doves is another beautiful collective noun from the aviary world.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game of geographic and astrological portmanteaus. For example, if you’re looking for something with a spongy-pointed marker in Pittsburgh, how about a Felt Tip Pennsylvania? Or if someone born in June is a place of exercise putting on makeup, chances are they’d wear Geminishadow.

A Vermont kindergarten teacher discusses unusual vocabulary with his class. He’s trying to revive apricity, which means the warmth of the sun in the winter. This term comes from the Latin meaning “to bask in the sun.” This caller hopes people will warm to the idea.

If someone calls you a voracious reader, would you be flattered or insulted? And is it better to be a voracious reader of nonfiction rather than novels? The word voracious, which shares a root with devour and carnivore, might connote a lack of discernment when it comes to eating, but if one reads voraciously, it’s typically a point of pride. What other gustatory tropes are there in the ways we talk about reading and eating?

“El pez se muere por la boca” is a wise and vivid Spanish proverb. It means “the fish dies by its mouth.”

In the Navy and the Marines, if someone goes hermantile, they’re angry, shouting, and unpredictable. This slang expression is of uncertain origin. It goes back to World War I but has stayed almost exclusively within the military’s lexicon and writings related to the Navy or the Marines.

Asafetida, the plant used in asafidity bags intended to ward off disease, is also a common ingredient in Indian cooking, and it’s said to counterbalance heavy spices and relieve stomach cramps.

Why can’t you tear the tag off a mattress? And why do old books say that the right of translation into foreign languages including the Scandinavian is reserved? These bits of jargon, not necessarily intended for the consumer, have seeped into our language because of nuanced copyright laws and the like.

How do you pronounce moot point? Does it sound like mute, or rhyme with toot?

Here’s another fun skeuomorph: Martha’s father bought an exercise bike for the den, but the pedals have reflectors on them.

Why do we speak to babies in high pitched voices? Often our eyes grow wide, we give big smiles, and we talk in exaggerated, singsongy voices because these are the things that infants respond to. Chances are this parental cooing has gone on since time immemorial.

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired March 10, 2012.

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What is it about lifelike robots and the humanoid characters in movies like The Polar Express that feels so disturbing? Robotics scientist Masahiro Mori dubbed this phenomenon the uncanny valley. There are lots of interesting articles explaining this creepy sensation in Slate, Wired, and on the NPR blog.

When selling a house, the last thing you want is to take a bath — or, for that matter, a haircut. The first of these refers to getting cleaned out of money. The second is an allusion to being left with as little as two bits, or 25 cents.

Be careful with that lazy man’s load! That’s the oversize armful you carry when you’re transporting things and take too much to avoid making another trip.

Why do politicians say they’re going to suspend a campaign? Aren’t they really just ending it? Under Federal Election Commission funding regulations, politicians can continue to collect money for paying off campaign fees well after an election, so long as their campaign is just suspended. William Safire’s Political Dictionary remains the best reference for such political terminology.

Would you prefer a low, six-figure salary or a low six-figure salary? With the comma, there are two independent modifiers for the salary; it’s six figures and by the speaker’s standards, it’s low. Without the comma, it’s simply less than $500,000.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a magical puzzle, the answers to which contain the word magic. For example, a motel sign in the ’70s might have included the enticement Magic Fingers, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a practitioner of literature featuring magic realism.

How do you spell the exclamation that rhymes with the word “woe”? Is it woah or whoa? The correct spelling in the United States is whoa, but when words are primarily translated orally, spelling often varies.

If you’re as happy as if someone were throwing pork at you, you’re pretty darn happy. And if something is higher than a cat’s back, it’s pretty darn high.

Post-9/11, we’ve heard a lot of new jargon pertaining to travel and security. An example is vaporwake, that term for the airborne trail we leave consisting of our natural scent, perfumes, and the odor of any drugs or weapons we may be carrying. Another example of Transportation Safety Administration terminology: puffer machine, the device that’s used to read your vaporwake by blowing a puff of air on you.

Why don’t nouns have gender in English they way they do in Spanish, French, or German? Before the Middle English period, nouns in English were either masculine, feminine, or neuter. Over time, however, we’ve moved away from the semantically arbitrary practice of assigning genders to objects that have none. In other words, the linguistic notion of grammatical gender is completely different from biological and social notion of natural gender.

Kippie bags, named after the former TSA head Kip Hawley, are those quart-sized bags we put toiletries in when going through airport security.

Grant has collected some modern onomatopoeia for the technological age. Try untz, for the beat in dance music, or wub, for the common dubstep sound. Pew pew! works for lasers, and beep, for a computer’s beep, is a modern classic.

Can you describe a price as cheap or expensive, or are those words only properly applied to the item for sale, rather than the price?

Absenteeism is a problem in the workplace, but so is presenteeism. That’s when people who should stay home to nurse a cold or flu insist on coming in to work, risking a turn for the worse or infecting everyone around them.

When it comes to words like reckon, is it true that Southerners preserve the Queen’s English?

What do you call a fear of clowns? Coulrophobia, from the ancient Greek term for “one who walks on stilts.” Perhaps coulrophobia is a creepy cousin of the uncanny valley. This article from Scientific American explains further. Here’s video of a woman who is afraid of clowns.

How many buffaloes can you fit in a sentence? Eight? How about 40? The sentence Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a staple of introductory linguistics classes, because it’s a great illustration of polysemy, in which one word can have several different meanings and parts of speech. In this case, example, buffalo can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, and a proper noun. It makes more sense to think of it this way: “Buffalo-originating bison that other Buffalo bison intimidate, themselves bully Buffalo bison.”

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired June 25, 2011.

Listen here: Download audio file (110627-AWWW-The-Bees-Knees.mp3)

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To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program.

What pet names do you have for your loved ones? In The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten shares the name his Mother used to call him — bubala, a term of endearment grandmothers might use in addressing children. We have all kinds of substitutes for the names of those we care about: sweetie, honey buns, snookums, etc. Martha opts for the Portuguese fofinha, meaning “fat, cuddly baby.”

What’s so cool about bees’ knees, anyway? The bee’s knees, a phrase meaning “cool” or “great,” dates back to the flapper era of the 1920s. It relates to an old definition of the word “cute,” referring to something small and nicely formed. The knees of a bee are just that, after all.

A bartender wonders about the origin of the term jockey box. In his world, a jockey box is a metal container for ice. However, in some parts of the western U.S., a jockey box means is the glove compartment of a car, and much earlier, the term referred to boxes attached to the side of chuck wagon for holding feed or water.

The caller also shares another bit of bartending slang, the so-called mat shot or Matt Dillon. It’s a glass of whatever liquor collects on the rubber mat on the bar, which some enterprising patrons order as a prank or a test of a strong stomach.

A listener in Romania learned English in the Southern U.S., but after going back home to where a British English is taught, people are having a hard time understanding his accent. Where we learn a language plays a big role in how we speak it.

Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has a game called “Centricity”, emphasis on the “city.” For example, “Mickey ate all the fruit, leaving Minneapolis.” And as George H.W. Bush said to George W. Bush, “You can be president Tucson.”

Has your boss ever used the expression “Let’s put the moose on the table“? This management buzzphrase, meaning “let’s address the problem everyone’s been avoiding,” is relatively new, showing up in print around the early 1990s. The phrase pops up in books by former Eli Lilly CEO Randall Tobias and management guru Jim Clemmer. In Clemmer’s book Moose on the Table, he tells a possible origin tale about a baby moose that crawled under a buffet table, only to be avoided by the patrons as it stank up the banquet hall.

What does it mean to have an albatross around your neck? A political pundit, referring to a current candidate, mentioned “an alcatraz around his neck.” The proper version, with an albatross, originates from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, wherein a sailor shoots an albatross, bringing down a curse on the boat, and his shipmates force him to wear an albatross around his neck as a symbol of shame. Grant notes that the name “albatross” likely derives from the Portuguese or Spanish “alcatraz,” meaning “pelican” or “sea bird.” So perhaps an alcatraz around the neck isn’t so far off after all.

If something’s “the bee’s knees,” you can bet that it’s also beast. A sixth grade teacher wonders about the term beast being thrown around by her students. This synonym for “cool” or “good” is also used as a verb, as in I beasted that exam, or “I did extremely well.” The slang term “beast” is common slang in sports, as in, “That player is a beast on the field.” Former Cal running back Marshawn Lynch is notably famous for his signature playing style, beast mode.

A few weeks ago, a listener was looking for a term to describe the copy of The Emperor’s New Clothes that he’d read many times as a child. In this picture book, the naughty bits were always cleverly covered up. Thinking he wanted a synonym for “fig leaf,” Martha had offered the word antipudic, from the Latin pudor meaning “shame.” Many listeners responded, suggesting that the word he really wanted was bowdlerize, meaning “to remove improper or offensive material.” This eponym comes from Thomas Bowdler, whose sister ghost-edited The Family Shakespeare in 1818 containing censored versions of Shakespeare’s plays.

If you go to a department store, you’ll see the Men’s department, the Women’s department, and the Children’s department. So why do so many stores have a department that’s called simply Baby? Grant attributes the non-possessive nomenclature of stores like Baby Gap to tradition in the retail industry.

A listener from San Diego, California, named Lois has been called Louise, Lori, Lauren, Louisa, and Rosa, to name a few. And of course, the Scott/Todd mix-up phenomenon continues. Do people ever mess up your name?

What does it mean to vet a political candidate? The word “vet” comes from veterinarian, specifically the ones who would examine a horse before a race to make sure it was healthy and eligible. Similarly, one might vet a candidate to make sure they’re up to snuff. The novelist John le Carre popularized the term in his political stories.

A listener from Wisconsin adds to the discussion on wind pudding and air sauce, explaining that where he’s from, wind pudding is old loggerspeak for “baked beans.”

How do you pronounce biopic? The proper way to mention the genre of biographical motion picture has always been “BUY-oh-pick,” as opposed to the mirror of myopic. It’s not unusual to mispronounce a word if the spelling does not clearly indicate how to say it. For example, Grant notes a common error people make in pronouncing misled to rhyme with “chiseled.”

If something’s not in your bailiwick, it’s not in your jurisdiction or area of control. But what exactly is a “bailiwick”? Martha explains that the two words which make up the term — bailiff and wick — have specific meanings in Middle English. A bailiff, in the time of kings, was “a public minister of a district,” and a wick was simply a “town” or “village.” For example, Gatwick literally referred to a “goat village.” And Greenwich literally meant “green village” or “village on the green.”

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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

Is that funny hehe or funny haha? The way we laugh indicates whether we’re laughing at someone or if we’re simply enjoying the humor they’ve brought.

This episode first aired June 20, 2011.

Listen here: Download audio file (120227-AWWW-Put-That-in-Your-Pipe-and-Smoke-It-Rebroadcast.mp3)

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To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program.

You know those words whose meanings never seem to stick in your mind, no matter how many times you flip back to the dictionary? Martha wrestles with the term atavistic, meaning “the tendency to revert to ancestral characteristics.” She now remembers it by the Latin root it shares with the Spanish word for “grandfather,” abuelo. Grant, in turn, shares his revelation that upwards of actually means “more than,” not “up to.”

A unicycle enthusiast wonders if his unicycle can be properly called a bike. To avoid the four-syllable mouthful, the unicycle community (yes, there is one) sometimes calls it a uni, but for the general public, the term “bike” works. Martha reveals that she once spent a summer teaching herself to ride a unicycle, and doesn’t mind calling it a bike. Grant notes the general rule that once a word has left its etymological root, it can be used for whatever we need it for.

Rihanna’s hit “Umbrella” may not have had the same ring if she’d referred to being “under my bumbershoot.” Nonetheless, bumbershoot, bumberell, brolly and bumbersol, among others, are all playful alternatives to umbrella that even Mary Poppins would appreciate. Grant explains that bumbershoot, itself an American slang term, derives from the Latin umbra, meaning “shadow,” and chute, as in “parachute.”

Twitter’s 140-character format has made way for a whole new brand of comedy writing. See Judah Friedlander: “More than one company should be allowed to sell Monopoly,” or Stephen Colbert: “It doesn’t always pay to get up early. If you’re a worm, you just get eaten by that early bird. So sleep in, worms.”

In the mood for a word puzzle? Our Quiz Guy Greg Pliska has an app for that. This week’s quiz features solutions starting with the letters app. Someone afraid to take care of the bug problem in their apartment doesn’t want to “app-roach” them!

Is it worth using proper pronunciation if it makes you sound ignorant or misinformed? Contrary to the common understanding, the word forte is actually pronounced “fort.” Grant describes forte as a skunked word; it’s a losing situation no matter how you use it. For the sake of clarity and conversational flow, it’s best instead to say that something is a “strength,” a “strong suit,” or is “in one’s wheelhouse.”

Do you ever spend your off-time doing something work related? This is known as a busman’s holiday or a postman’s holiday, as in the British understanding of holiday as a vacation or time off work. Research for a dictionary entry on postman’s holiday led Grant to an old French ragtime song called “Le Facteur en Balade,” or “The Postman on a Walk”. In the proper sense, a postman’s holiday might consist of a leisurely walk along the same route whereon he delivers the mail. Let’s just hope it doesn’t involve getting chased by dogs.

Some listeners are madly in love with oxymorons, and they continue to share their favorites. One listener has a great T-shirt that reads “An oxymoron a day keeps reality away.” Another says his favorite oxymoron is “Dodge Ram.”

A listener from Richmond, Virginia, remembers an old game called buckeye that consists of metaphorically pulling someone’s leg, then calling Buckeye! and tugging one’s own lower eyelid. Martha suggests that it may be related to a 19th-century use of buckeye that refers to “something or someone inferior,” like a country bumpkin or a rube. Thus, calling “Buckeye!” may be equivalent to calling someone a sucker for getting tricked, or punk’d. Still, any explanation for the eyelid exposure is still pending.

Grant is pleased as punch about BYU Professor Mark Davies’ new Google Books Corpus, which contains entries for every word ever in the entire Google Books database. In addition to parts of speech and definitions, the site provides contextual examples for each word. For example, the database has revealed that the word “suitcase” is often preceded by the adjective “battered.” Writers, teachers, English learners and language enthusiasts will love prospecting in this lexical goldmine.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig! A listener wonders about the origin of this phrase her Mother often used. Grant and Martha trace it back to another mother: Mother Goose. The full line goes, “To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, home again, home again, jiggity-jig.” It does not, contrary to a highly visited Google result, originate from the movie Blade Runner (though it’s a cute scene nonetheless).

Listeners have been sharing some of their personal Scrabble rules, including new uses for the blank tile. For example, one variation allows for the tile to be removed and reused, so if Grant were to play the blank tile as an “E” and Martha has an “E” in her tray, she can swap the tiles and then use the blank for her own play. Just be sure to use it, because nobody likes someone who bogarts the blank tile!

Downton Abbey, a program featured on Masterpiece Theater, provided a handful of colorful expressions that date surprisingly far back. “Like it or lump it,” meaning “deal with it,” is found at least as early as 1830 and takes from the old verb lump meaning “to look sulky or disagreeable.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it, a contemporary favorite meaning “Take that!” actually shows up around 1820. As for the phrase you’re sailing perilously close to the wind, meaning “be careful not to overstep” — well, we haven’t caught wind of the origin of that one.

Databases like the Google Books Corpus can also be used to follow text over time. For example, as the women’s suffrage movement grew around 1910, words relating to women’s rights grew in popularity and frequency of usage.

What came first, the color orange or the fruit? The original term is Sanskrit and refers to the fruit. As the fruit traveled west, the word came with it. Grant notes that, like the terms for parts of the body, the names of colors travel very well in language because we’re constantly speaking and writing about them. The term “orange” became what it is in English after the fruit made it to the French town Orange.

Martha shares a quip that’s all too true: “I don’t find it hard to meet expenses. They’re everywhere!”

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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired Friday, February 17, 2012.

Download audio file (120220-AWWW-Kissing-Games.mp3)

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What does your signature say about you? In today’s world of PIN-codes and electronic communication, maybe not so much.

What’s a tasteful way to refer to one’s rear end? Tushie and tush come from the Yiddish word tuchus. Also spelled tochis and tochas, it is regarded by some folks, such as the including the New York Times, as “insufficiently elegant.”

Grant has alphabet riddles for the young ones. What did the alphabet’s love note say? U R A Q T!

Ever play padiddle in the car? You know, that game where you slap the ceiling when someone’s headlight is out? Padiddle, also known as perdiddle and padoodle, go back to the 1940s, and were traditionally kissing games. There’s even more about such games, including slug bug, in an earlier episode.

Be on the lookout for instances to drop this Texas colloquialism: “He didn’t have enough hair on his chest to make a wig for a grape!”

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game called Word Scouts. In order to earn your badge, you’ll have to know the architectural term Bauhaus and the flower that’s also a past tense verb.

The phrases “Who let the hawk out?” and “The hawk is flying tonight” both mean “there’s a chilly wind blowing.” This saying is almost exclusive to the African-American community and is associated with that Windy City, Chicago.

What’s the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? None, really. In the past, though, the word attorney could also refer more generally to a person you “turned to” to represent you, regardless of whether that person had legal training.

How would you fare in a quiz of idiom meanings? If you’re looking to bone up on these colloquial expressions, the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms is a good place to start.

What do you call the last serving of food on a plate — the one everyone’s too embarrassed to reach for? That last piece has been variously known as the mannersbit or manners piece, a reference to the fact that it’s considered polite to not empty a plate, assuring the hosts that they provided sufficient fare. In Spanish, the last remaining morsel that everyone’s too bashful to take is called la vergüenza, or “the shame.”

What was your favorite camp song? If it sounds like nonsensical scat singing, it may date back to a radio character named Buddy Bear who sang in scat on the Buddy Bear show in the 1940s.

How does the alphabet get to work? Why, the L, of course!

Among some African-Americans, the term “Hannah” means “the sun.” This sense is memorialized in the lyrics of “Go Down Old Hannah,” a work song from the 1930s. One writer said of this haunting melody: “About 3 o’clock on a long summer day, the sun forgets to move and stops, so then the men sing this song.” The great folklorist Alan Lomax also made recordings of prison workers singing this song.

Twitter is a great way to discover words that are new to you and to others. Just search with #newword or “new word,” and you’ll find gems like holus-bolus, meaning the whole thing or all together.

If something is described as soup to nuts, it’s “the whole thing” or it “runs the gamut.” The phrase refers to an old-fashioned way of dining, beginning with soup and ending with nuts for dessert. The ancient Romans used an analogous expression in Latin: ab ovo usque ad malum, literally, “from the egg to the apple.”

Martha reads a poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan called “The Long Up.”

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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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired Friday, February 10, 2012.

Download audio file (120213-AWWW-The-Rubber-Match.mp3)

Download the MP3 here

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What do you call a knitted winter cap? A beanie? A toboggan? A stocking hat? Grant’s Great Knitted Hat Survey traces the different terms for this cold weather accessory used across the country.

How do you refer to rubber-soled athletic shoes? Are they sneakers or tennis shoes? Something else? When canvas shoes with soft rubber soles came into use, they were so quiet compared to wood-soled shoes that one could literally sneak about. Outside the Northeast tennis shoe is the more common term.

The biblical king Jehoshaphat is the inspiration for the exclamation “jumpin’ Jehosaphat!” This alliterative idiom probably arose in the 19th century, but was popularized by the cartoon character Yosemite Sam.

Looking for some good Scrabble words? Try zarf, a type of cup holder of Arabic origin, or finjan, the small cup that’s held by the zarf.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski shows off his acting skills with a word puzzle based on sounds.

Tight games often end up at a rubber match, or tiebreaker. Used for a variety of sports and card games, rubber match has been in use since the late 16th century, and seem to have originated in the game of lawn bowling.

Do dictionaries deal with copyright infringement or plagiarism when definitions match up between volumes? Since many modern dictionaries derive from the same few tomes, it’s common to see definitions that match. But lexicographers have been known to plant mountweazels, or fake words, to catch serial plagiarizers. One famous mountweazel is the word jungftak.

If someone directs you to drive three sees, they’re advising you “drive as far as you can see, then do it two more times.”

If something’s larrupin’ good, it’s spankin’ good or thumpin’ good. It comes from the word “larrup,” a verb meaning “to beat or thrash.”

Martha shares a couple of choice idioms: “dry as a contribution box” and “plump as a partridge.”

Pico Iyer’s piece in the Los Angeles Times is a testament to the value of long sentences in our age of tweets and abbrevs.

Oh no you di-int! The linguistic term for what happens when someone pronounces “didn’t” as “di-int,” or Martin as Mar-in without the “t” sound, is called glottalization. Instead of making a “t” sound with the tongue behind the teeth, a different sound is made farther back in the mouth. John Rickford, professor of linguistics at Stanford University, does a thorough job tracing this phenomenon in his book African-American English: Structure, History, and Use.

When putting together a jigsaw puzzle, do you call it making a puzzle or doing a puzzle? Listeners shared lots of different opinions on the A Way with Words Facebook group.

The Dictionary of American Regional English traces you’uns, a plural form of you, to the Midlands and the Ohio River Valley. But the phrase goes back a while; even Chaucer used something similar.

If someone’s feeling owly, they’re in a grumpy mood and ought to pull up their socks and cut it out. The phrase is chiefly used in the Midwest and Canada and can be found in some dictionaries from Novia Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Some people think owls look grumpy or creepy, although others think they’re adorable. Then there are those who prefer moist owlets.

Martha reads a favorite love poem by E.E. Cummings. (Because you’re going to ask, properly capitalizing his name is the right thing to do.)

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/.

We’re also grateful for support from the University of San Diego. Since 1949, USD has been on a mission not only to prepare students for the world, but also to change it. Learn more about the college and five schools of this nationally ranked, independent Catholic university at sandiego.edu.

This episode first aired Friday, February 3, 2012.

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What’s the common thread that connects the phrases pour out your heart, from time to time, fell flat on his face, the skin of my teeth, and the root of the matter? They all come from, or were popularized by, the King James Bible, published in 1611. The Manifold Greatness exhibit is now traveling to libraries and schools nationwide, demonstrating, among other things, this translation’s profound impact on the English language.

A wedding photographer says she happens to run into lots of people who are three sheets to the wind, and wonders why that term came to mean “falling-down drunk.” It’s from nautical terminology. On a seagoing vessel, the term sheets refers to “the lines or ropes that hold the sails in place.” If one, two, or even three sheets get loose and start flapping in the wind, the boat will swerve and wobble as much as someone who’s overimbibed.

In Australia, if someone’s socky, they’re “lacking in spirit or self confidence.” If someone’s toey, they’re “nervous,” “aroused,” or “frisky.”

The words respiration and inspiration have the same Latin root, spirare, which means “to breathe.” The word “conspire” has the same Latin etymological root. But what does conspiring have to do with breathing? The source of this term is notion that people who conspire are thinking in harmony, so close that they even breathe together.

The so-called Wicked Bible is a 1631 version of the King James, printed by Robert Barker and Matin Lucas. This particular Bible is so called because the printers somehow managed to leave out the word not in the commandment against adultery. They were, indeed, punished. Behold the offending page.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a game of Curtailments, in which the last letter of one word is removed to make another. For example: When the family gathers around the ________, it’s clear that home is where the _______ is.

What do you call a gift that turns into a hassle, like a gift card for a store not in your area, or one with a pressing expiration date? A New York caller suggests the term gaft. Another possibility is white elephant, a term derived from the story of a king in ancient Siam, who punished unruly subjects with the gift of a rare white elephant. The recipient couldn’t possibly refuse the present, but the elephant’s upkeep became extremely costly.

What’s an asafidity bag? Variously spelled asfidity, asfedity, asafetida, asphidity, and assafedity, it’s a folk medicine tradition involves putting the stinky resin of the asafetida or asafoetida plant in a small bag worn around the neck to ward off disease. Then again, if this practice really does help you avoid colds and flu, it’s probably because nobody, contagious or otherwise, wants come near you.

You can hear Granny Clampett mentions asafidity bags twice in the first two minutes of this episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. There’s also a lengthy online discussion about this old folk tradition.

In an earlier episode, Martha and Grant discussed what to call a person who doesn’t eat fish. A listener calls with another suggestion: pescatrarian, from the Latin word that means “fish.”

Why do spelling bees in the United States use so many bizarre, obsolete, ginormous, and Brobdingnagian words? Webster’s New International Dictionary, 3rd Edition, published in 1961, is still the standard for spelling bees, and thus contains some dated language. However, most unabridged dictionaries won’t get rid of words even as they slip out of use.

Recent winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee included cymotrichous, stromuhr, Laodicean, guerdon, serrefine, and Ursprache. How many do you know? The whole list.

Do you pronounce the words “cot” and “caught” differently? How about the words “don” and “dawn,” or “pin” and “pen”? The fact that some people pronounce at least some of these pairs identically is attributable to what’s called a vowel merger.

Why is New York City called the Big Apple? In the 1920s, a writer named John Fitz Gerald used it in a column about the horse racing scene, because racetrack workers in New Orleans would say that if a horse was successful down South, they’d send it to race in the Big Apple, namely at New York’s Belmont Park. For just about everything you’d ever want to know about this term, visit the site of etymological researcher Barry Popik.

A caller says her relative always used an interjection that sounds like “sigh” for the equivalent of “Are you paying attention?” The hosts suspect it’s related to “s’I,” a contraction of “says I.” This expression open appears in Mark Twain’s work, among other places.

Many teachers aren’t crazy about cornergami. That’s what you’ve committed if you’ve ever been without a stapler and folded over the corners of a paper to keep them attached.

The phrase “in like Flynn” describes someone who’s thoroughly successful, often with the ladies. Many suspect it’s a reference to the dashing actor Errol Flynn and his sensational trial on sex-related charges. That highly publicized trial may have popularized the expression, but it was already in use before that. It could perhaps be a case of simple rhyming, along the lines of such phrases as “What do you know, Joe?” and “out like Stout.”

The foam sleeve you put around a can of ice-cold beer or soda sometimes goes by a name that sounds like the word “cozy.” But how do you spell it? As with words that are primarily spoken, not written, it’s hard to find a single definitive spelling. In fact, the word for this sleeve is spelled at least a dozen different ways.

This episode first aired Friday, January 27, 2012.

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Martha and Grant share some favorite unusual words. Omphaloskepsis is a fancy term for “navel-gazing,” from the Greek omphalos, meaning “navel.” Mumbleteenth is a handy substitute when a number is too embarrassing to mention, as in, “Socrates the omphaloskeptic questioned himself for the mumbleteenth time.”

Double-talk, or doublespeak, is a form of gibberish that involves adding “ib” or other syllables to existing words. This sort of wordplay has been used among criminals using double-talk to communicate on the sly.

You say puh-KAHN, I say PEE-can. Just how do you pronounce the name of the nut called a pecan? Turns out, there are several correct pronunciations.

Window-shopping became popular pastime along New York’s 5th Avenue back in the days when stores closed at 5 p.m. Passersby would stroll past, gazing at the window displays without intending to purchase anything. The French term for “window shopping,” lecher les vitrines, literally translates as “window-licking.”

The word plangent, which means “loud” and sometimes has a melancholy ring to it, is an apt descriptor for movie soundtracks.

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski revives a classic game of word reversals called Get Back. What palindromic advice would you give to someone who ought to stay away from baked goods? How about shun buns? If, on the other hand, you’ve highlighted the pastries, then you’ve stressed desserts.

The word “silly” didn’t always have its modern meaning. In the 1400s, “silly” meant happy or blessed. Eventually, “silly” came to mean weak or in need of protection. Other seemingly simple words have shifted meanings as the English language developed: the term “girl” used to denote either a boy or a girl, and the word “nice” at one time meant ignorant.

Is there an English language authority like the Real Academia Española or the Academie Française? Dictionaries often have usage panels made up of expert linguists, but English is widely agreed to be a constantly shifting language. Even in France and Spain, the common vernacular often doesn’t follow that of the authorities.

How do double rainbows form? Scientists at University of California San Diego have explained that extra-large droplets, known as burgeroids because of their burger-like shape, have the effect of creating a double rainbow. Burgeroids, all the way!

The word “bummer” originates from the German bummler, meaning “loafer,” as in a lazy person. In English, the word “bum” had a similar meaning, and by the late 1960s, phrases like bum deal or bum wrap lent themselves to the elongated “bummer,” referring to something that’s disheartening or disappointing.

Many in the South know a pallet to be a stack of blankets or a makeshift bed. The classic blues song “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” gives a perfect illustration.

The “I vs. me” grammatical rule isn’t hard to remember. Just leave the other person out of the sentence. You wouldn’t say “me am going to a movie” or “Dad took I to a movie.”

What’s the difference between empathic and empathetic? Empathic is actually an older word, meaning that one has empathy for another, but the two are near-perfect synonyms, and thus interchangeable.

Do you suffer from FOMO? That’s an acronym fueled by Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites. It stands for “fear of missing out.”

What does a piggyback ride have to do with pigs? Not much. In the 16th century, the word was “pickaback,” meaning to pitch or throw on one’s back. It’s had dozens of spellings over the past few centuries, but perhaps the word piggy has contributed to its popularity among children.

You know how it is when you encounter a word and then suddenly you start noticing it everywhere? One that’s seemed to pop up is cray, or cray-cray, a slang variant of crazy.

Hold ’er, Newt! This primarily Southern idiom means either “Hold on tight!” or “Giddy-up!” It apparently derives from the idea of a high-spirited horse. Variants of this expression sometimes add “She’s headed for the rhubarb” or “She’s headed for the barn!”

Some classic advice for writers from Anton Chekhov: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

This episode first aired January 21, 2012.

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Researchers have found that stress is a leading cause of plewds — you know, those drops of sweat popping off the foreheads of nervous cartoon characters. That’s one of several cartooning terms coined by Mort Walker, creator of the Beetle Bailey comic strip. Martha and Grant discuss this and other coinages from The Lexicon of Comicana.

If someone’s coming to town Sunday week, when exactly should you expect them? This Scots-Irish term means “a week after the coming day mentioned.”

What are those symbols cartoonists use in place of profanity? They’re called grawlixes — good to know for the next time you play a game we just invented called “Comic Strip Trope or Pokemon?”

Is it okay to make a verb out of a noun? Yes! It’s estimated that twenty percent of English verbs started as nouns. Just think of the head-to-toe mnemonic: you can head off a problem, face a situation, nose around, shoulder responsibility, elbow your way into something, stomach a problem, foot the bill, or toe the line. Verbing weirds language.

Squeans are the little starbursts or circles surrounding a cartoon character’s head to signify intoxication or dizziness.

Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle called “Categories”. The challenge is to find the common thread that unites seemingly unrelated things. For example, Mary-Kate and Ashley, Jack Sparrow’s crew, and cherubim all fall into which category? The answer: Twins, Pirates, and Angels are all baseball teams!

What’s a grass widow? In the 1500s,this term applied to a woman with loose sexual morals. Over time, it came to mean a woman who’s been separated from her husband, or a divorcée.

If someone’s jingoistic, they’re extremely patriotic, often belligerently so. The term comes from a British song written in 1870 that uses the phrase “by jingo!” to conjure up enthusiasm for a British naval action.

The curved lines that follow the moving limbs of cartoon characters? Those are called blurgits or swalloops.

The admonition “you don’t believe fatmeat is greasy” is found almost exclusively among African-Americans. The idea is apparently that if you don’t believe fat meat is greasy, you’re someone who misses the obvious.

What’s the difference between the words insure and ensure? To ensure means to make certain. Insure means to protect someone or something from risk, and should be used exclusively in a financial sense.

For some time now, linguists have been studying a style of speaking known as “creaky voice.” In the United States, it’s heard particularly heard among young white women in urban areas. New research about this phenomenon, also known as vocal fry, has been making the rounds on the internet.

Voilà (not spelled “wallah” or “vwala”) is a good example of a borrowed word. Though French for “there it is,” Americans often use it as a simple utterance, akin to presto or ta-da.

Lock the bad guys up in the hoosegow! This slang term for a jail comes from the Spanish “juzgado,” meaning “tribunal.” It’s an etymological relative of the English words “judge” and “judicial.”

Did you know roly-polies, or pill bugs, aren’t even bugs? They’re isopods, meaning they have equal feet, and they’re technically crustaceans.

Autocorrect mistakes abound, but have you ever made the errors yourself, such as typing the word buy when you meant by? Studies in Computer Mediated Communications have linked this phenomenon to the way we process words phonetically before typing them out.

Solrads are those lines radiating from the sun or a lightbulb in a comic strip, while dites are the diagonal lines on a smooth mirror.

This episode first aired January 14, 2012.

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What do you call those plastic shopping bags that litter the street? Some know them as witches’ britches or witches’ knickers. Others prefer urban tumbleweeds. In the film American Beauty, Ricky Fitts famously called them one the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. Either way, despite the effort to introduce reusable bags, the plastic variety continues to accumulate. Lori Robinson of Santa Barbara has even gone so far as to collect them from Tanzanian villages and distribute the more sustainable variety.

A clumsy person may be known as a bull in a china shop or a bull in a china closet. The former came into use first, in the early 1800s, but a bull in china closet is more evocative. Plus, according to the MythBusters, a bull in a china shop is surprisingly nimble.

When did the expression “to have a crush on someone” come into use? The television series Downton Abbey has dropped this and other fun bits of language, but no need to worry about its historical accuracy — crush has been around since the early 1880s. To mash on someone or crash on someone are idioms in the same vein, and may derive from the idea of an emotional collision between two prospective flames.

As they say in Wasika, Minnesota, “If I don’t see you in the future, I’ll see you in the pasture.”

Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a new word game titled “The Secrets of Nym.” In Alcoholics Anonymous, “denial” is said to stand for “Don’t Even Notice I Am Lying,” which is a backronym. An acoustic guitar could be considered a retronym. And an editor named “Daily” is an example of an aptronym.

When someone finds out where you’re from, do they ask if you know so-and-so? The cynics out there may refer to this as the six degrees of stupid, but even urban dwellers can admit that the answer is yes more often than the odds would suggest. How do you respond in those cases? Is there a term for those questions?

The Spanish equivalent of our “bull in a china shop” analogy translates to “like an elephant in a pottery store.”

Where does the meme “like a boss “come from? The original boss may be the rapper Slim Thug, whose 2005 track “Like A Boss,” from the album Already Platinum (which never went platinum), lists the myriad tasks he performs like a boss (e.g. “When I floss/ like a boss”). In 2009, Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live and The Lonely Island made a video entitled “Like A Boss” featuring Seth Rogen, which describes further boss-like activities (e.g. “promote synergy/ like a boss”).

An old book of similes contains such gems as it’s “easy as peeling a hardboiled egg” and it’s as “hard to shave as an egg.”

Does “evidence-based” have a hyphen? Why, yes it does, because evidence-based functions as an adjective. While style guides indicate that we’re using fewer hyphens, evidence-based is an important one to keep intact, even when used after the verb (e.g. “the research is evidence-based”).

Here’s another great simile: “large as life and twice as natural.” As in, did you really see Elvis? Yep, he was large as life and twice as natural.

It’s been a puzzler tracking the origin of the saying “good night, sleep tight, see you on the big drum.” Perhaps it’s an innocent mixup that takes from the Robert Burns poem Tam o’ Shanter, which reads, good night, sleep tight, I’ll see you on the Brigadoon.

“You’d better behave, or I’ll knock you from an amazing grace to a floating opportunity!” This African-American saying, used as a motherly warning, first popped up in the 1930 play Mule Bone by Langston Hughes.

Infra dig, short for the Latin phrase infra dignitatum, means beneath one’s dignity, or uncouth. Abbreviated Latin phrases like “infra dig” have become standard after old English schoolboys used to shorten them while studying classical texts.

Here are some easy similes: “easy as winking” or “easy as breathing.” If you prefer a tough one, try “as difficult to grasp as a shadow.”

We all know the idiom “slow as molasses,” but slow as Moses does just as well. After all, he spent 40 years trekking to the Promised Land, and even described himself as slow of speech and of tongue.

The 19th Century French writer Adolphe de Lamartine said that written language is like a mirror, which it is necessary to have in order that man know himself and be sure that he exists.

In their song “The Old Apartment,” The Barenaked Ladies sang, “crooked landing / crooked landlord / narrow laneway filled with crooks.” “Crooked” there is an example of a polyseme, or one word that has multiple meanings. Similar to this is the syllepsis, wherein one word is applied to other words in different senses (e.g. Alanis Morissette: “You held your breath and the door for me”).

Here’s one that’s sure to lull a restless child into sleep: “night night chicken butt ham head yoo hoo!”