Geneva Smitherman Archives – A Way with Words

My Word is Born

Posted by Grant Barrett on October 10, 2020 · Add Comment

Learning that Fat Meat is Greasy

Posted by grantbarrett on March 6, 2015 · Add Comment

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Like White on Rice

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 2, 2013 · Add Comment

Is white on rice a racist idiom? No! It simply means that if you’re on top of your tasks like white on rice, it means you’ve got it covered the way rice is covered in whiteness. In Geneva Smitherman’s Talkin and Testifyin, she relays a lyric from Frankie Crocker that goes, “Closer than white’s on [...]
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Wolf Tickets

Posted by Grant Barrett on October 20, 2012 · Add Comment

To sell woof tickets, or wolf tickets, is African-American slang meaning “to threaten in a boastful manner.” Geneva Smitherman, a professor at Michigan State University who’s studied the term, believes it has its origins in the idea of a dog barking uselessly. This is part of a complete episode.
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Etymology of “Word Up”

Posted by grantbarrett on January 15, 2011 · Add Comment

What’s the origin of the expressions “word!” and “word up!”? Grant shares a theory from the book Black Talk by Geneva Smitherman. Here’s that Eighties-era song
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