A silly joke about a parrot made the rounds of 19th-century American newspaper, and may be the source for our expression “cry uncle,” meaning “to give up.” This is part of a complete episode.
You must log in to post a comment.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Episode Archives
One of our favorite callers : Adorable six-year-old Aiya! 12/13/2019: ... [more]
Electrifying! - a Special Minicast from Martha 12/12/2019: Hey, podcast listener! Martha here with a special minicast of A Way with Words. Today I want to tell you a story — and make... [more]
Bug in Your Ear (episode #1537) 12/09/2019: Is there something inherent in English that makes it the linguistic equivalent of the Borg, dominating and consuming other languages in its path? No, not... [more]
The Black Dog (episode #1536) 11/25/2019: Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse... [more]
Beside Myself (episode #1535) 11/04/2019: The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but how accurate is the script when it comes... [more]
This explanation, of all you have ever given, seems the most contrived. Why was being used as the word for the parrot? This seems more like a joke based on an existing expression — which brings me to the theory I accept…
In “How The Irish Invented Slang,” by Daniel Cassidy, he claims that the Gaelic word for mercy is “anacal” (loosely pronounced ahna-kaal). The influx of Irish immigrants is what brought this saying to America, as well as a book of other expressions. Most of these expressions were not written in literature, so it’s easy for their origins to be lost
Daniel Cassidy and his book are completely unacceptable to source material. Read my full review of it and his theories here: https://grantbarrett.com/humdinger-of-a-bad-irish-scholar/