A Way with Words Episode: Today I Learned (#1578, 2021 Fall Pledge Show) Show number: 210826 Air date: Evergreen. This episode has not previously aired. ON-AIR STATION HOST INTRO: This week on "A Way with Words," it's a special edition of questions from kids and childhood misunderstandings. Youngsters want to know: What's the difference between "barely" and "nearly," and what's so clean about a whistle, anyway? Plus, adults recount some misunderstandings from when they were knee-high to a grasshopper. Kids do come up with some surprisingly creative interpretations of words and phrases the rest of us take for granted! COPY FOR USE BY STATIONS: SUMMARY Youngsters want to know: What's the difference between barely and nearly, and what's so clean about a whistle, anyway? Plus, adults recount some misunderstandings from when they were knee-high to a grasshopper. Kids do come up with some surprisingly creative interpretations of words and phrases the rest of us take for granted! FULL DETAILS John, a 10-year-old from Dallas, Texas, wonders why an unpredictable or uncontrollable person is called a loose cannon. Tracie in Madison, Wisconsin, shares her childhood misunderstanding about the town of Random, the place where she assumed that all sweepstakes winners were chosen. Kadee, a Texas sixth-grader, wonders about how to pronounce the word caramel. There are at least seven different ways to pronounce the name of this gooey treat, including some with two and three syllables. A high-schooler in Indianapolis, Indiana, wonders why the word number is abbreviated as no., given that there’s no letter O in the word. The answer lies in the Latin word numero, which is the ablative form of the Latin word for number, numerus. The word ounce comes from the Latin unit of measurement uncia, which found its way into Medieval Italian as onza, the source of our own abbreviation for ounce, or oz. Fourteen-year-old Harry from Charlotte, Vermont, asks why we say something is clean as a whistle. Clean as a whistle refers not to a physical whistle, but to the purity of the sibilant sound. Tommy in Lexington, Kentucky, recalls that when he was a youngster, a sightseeing trip to Washington, D.C., led to a hilarious misunderstanding about exactly what might be on offer at the National Mall. Matt from Waukesha, Wisconsin, has been discussing the words barely and nearly with his 10-year-old son Simon. They know the two words are nearly alike, but how exactly? A listener shares his youthful experience of misunderstanding the rules of baseball and what it means to run home, and Martha confesses to a similar goof as a junior-high-school-age basketball player. Sam from Nichols, New York, reports that as a boy, he misunderstood the lyrics to the song "Home on the Range." What, he wondered, is so discouraging about the word seldom? This episode is hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette. … CONTACT INFORMATION Grant Barrett Co-host/co-producer of "A Way with Words" http://waywordradio.org cell/office (646) 286-2260 grantbarrett@gmail.com words@waywordradio.org Backup contact information: Stefanie Levine Senior Producer of "A Way with Words" cell/office (619) 890-4275 slevine@waywordradio.org