Michelle, a middle school teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, says her students believe they’ve invented a new word for “an injury received from a fist bump or dap.” They say they created fistumba as a combination of fist and Zumba, the popular dance exercise. They’re wondering how to improve their chances of spreading this new word, and they’ve been discussing the children’s book Frindle, by Andrew Clements, which is about inventing and trying to popularize a new term. This is part of a complete episode.
Episode Archives
Baby's Breath (episode #1545) 03/23/2020: Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There's a word for that: googleganger. Plus,... [more]
Hog on Ice (episode #1544) 03/09/2020: One secret to writing well is … there is no secret! There's no substitute for simply sitting down day after day to practice the craft... [more]
Goody Two-Shoes (episode #1543) 02/24/2020: She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it's the young Mary Anning, who went on to... [more]
Baby Blues (episode #1542) 02/10/2020: A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn't about "suffering." It's from a Latin word... [more]
Walkie Talkie (episode #1541) 01/27/2020: One of the most powerful words you'll ever hear — and one of the most poignant — isn't in dictionaries yet. But it probably will... [more]
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