17 Burst results for "Grant Barrett"
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words that show about language and how we use it. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett and we're joined by our quiz guy, John chunky. Hello, John. Hi, Craig. Hi, Martha. It's a pleasure to be back once again. You know if I had a dime for every time we did a quiz based on rhymes, I'd have enough for a subway ride, maybe. Instead of doing rhyme time, I thought we'd try something a little different. This is called rhyme and time. In the following answers, the rhyming words are separated by the word and. For example, if I gave you the clue, this is a technique for narrowing the aspect ratio of a widescreen movie so that it'll fit on your TV screen, you might know that that technique is called pan and scan. Oh yes. They panned the movie. They find where the action is and that's the part they use. Pen and scan. So it's going to be blank and blank and the two words will rhyme. Here we go. Speaking of techniques, it's a technique for courting someone. You take them out frequently for drinks and good food. Wine and dying. Yes, wine and diets. A pretty good technique. You're not likely to make many friends with an attitude like this one. You're a pessimist who focuses only on the negative aspects of any situation. Grown and moan, moan and grown, motor grown. That's something, but I don't need something I've heard regularly. Doom and gloom. Yes, doom and gloom, I would also accept gloom and doom, both of them are used. Now, you won't make many friends if you're not there for them. It may sound like an advantageous position to be in during a flood, but it really means you need help. I guess high and dry, very good. Better way to live your life is to be honest and straightforward when dealing with people.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to a way with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. In our Martha Barnett, here's a word I just added to my vocabulary, and you might want to add it to if you don't know it, will it wallop us? Well, what did the doctor say cause that? A will of us wallopers, which is wi P U.S. hyphen. In the late 19th century, a will of us wallop us was this vague legendary monster with lots of legs that supposedly haunted the American south. But soon after it became a term that applied to a steamroller or some similar large machine that you'd use on the road, any large piece of road equipment. And I was just looking at a 1932 newspaper that talked about the town's municipal wallopers. I've been thinking about willa plus Wallace for any large thing my dog bear is getting a really big. And I heard myself call him will up his wallop us the other day. Yeah, that's a cute term, right? Well, I'm wonder if in the fanfic world, if anybody has written about Willis Wallace, and I'm thinking about fanfic because the word I've come across recently, I didn't know I needed it. But boy, did I? It's the opposite of caps lock. The opposite of caps lock. Yeah, so instead of putting down the caps key and typing everything in all capital letters, it's lapse lock where you don't type anything in capital letters, not even the first letter of a sentence, or someone's name, or the pronoun I lapse like LA PS LLC. And it's the kind of thing that a fan fiction writer might do to kind of set their style or set their tone. You might see it on AO three, the website archive of our own. And it's particularly of a kind of term that you would use when somebody should have used capitalization.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words, the show about language, and how we use it. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett and here he is, our quiz guide John chin esky. Hi, John. Hi, grant. Hi, Martha. I have a great quiz for you today. Now author Tom Wolfe passed not long ago, and it was a great loss to both fiction and nonfiction and to the English language in general as Tom Wolfe really wrote in a very idiosyncratic way. He came up with phrases or popularized phrases which have a place in the OED and that were only known in certain circles before he popularized them. So what we're going to do a little quiz about Tom wolf isms, if that's okay. Great. Okay. Great, good. For example, one of the most famous phrases you popularized, he uses the title of a 1979 book. Now it had been around for years, meaning just what is needed. Wolfe's application of it gave it a stronger sense like having the qualities to perform a difficult task. Now that phrase, do you know what it is? The right stuff. Yes, the right stuff. I was going to say applied to astronauts, but then once you say astronauts, that's the giveaway. Yeah, so the right stuff. Let's look at some more. Now, listeners of the show who were born in the 1980s, 90s or the aughts might need to have it explained to them why Tom Wolfe coined what descriptor for the 1970s. The me decade? The media gate, yeah, do you know why that was? Well, the 60s were still, they still remembered World War II. People were still concerned about what they could do for each other and for the country and rebuilding. Once they got into the 70s, people were more inwardly directed. So that's why Tom Wolfe came up with the me decade. So though I thought the 80s were more than me decade, people seemed a lot more self interested in the 80s.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. In a Martha Barnett. At the literary festival and writers conference in San Miguel de Allende this year, I heard a luminous reading by the poet Sandra cisneros, who is a Mexican American writer. And I gathered up a bunch of her books and brought them home with me. And I've been reading a lot of her poetry, and I wanted to share a poem with you. It's about peaches and is called peaches. 6 in a tin bowl Sarajevo. If peach's head arms surely they would hold one another in their peach sleep. And if peach's head feet, it is sure they would nudge one another with their soft peachy feet. And if peaches could, they would sleep with their dimpled head on the other's each to each. Like you and me. And sleep and sleep. And that's it. And one of the things I love about this poem is that she does so much with a bowl of fruit, just like William Carlos Williams, and the plums. And the other thing that I love about it is that it makes me smile literally. It has all those E sounds like peaches and me and sleep and feet. And I can't help but smile when I read it. You think that the E sound is stretching your face into a smile. Yes, yes. I try to continue on with the real smile. Yes, it's not an easy poem to read, but when I finish my cheeks are sore. Interesting. As brief as it is. Yeah. Sandra cisneros, and it's called again. It's called peaches 6 in a tin bowl Sarajevo, and it's from the collection my wicked wicked ways by Sandra cisneros published by vintage books and used with the author's permission, all rights reserved. Thank you, Martha. That was wonderful. If you've got a poem you'd like to share, give us a call, 877-929-9673 or email us words at wayward radio dot org. Hello, you have a way with words.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. In I'm Martha Barnett. As I have for the last couple of years, I taught a workshop at the San Miguel writer's conference in literary festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and I was reminded of a couple of food related idioms in Spanish that I think you'll appreciate. In English, if you really scared about something, you might describe yourself as shaking like a leaf, right? But in Spanish, the phrases. To shake like a fly like the dessert. The tremble like a flan, which which you can just picture it right when somebody sets down the plate on your table and it's just yeah, it's because it's kind of like a firm Jell-O firmer than Jell-O, right? It's not quite as wiggly, but too wiggly. Yeah. I love that image. And I also love Dalai lav velta a la tortilla, which literally means to flip the tortilla. And you would use that in the context of, say you're watching your favorite soccer team. And they're just losing and losing and losing, but all of a sudden something happens. And they end up winning the game. You say they flip the tortilla. Oh, and we would say flip to the script maybe in English or to turn the tide. Yeah, you turn the tide. But I like that they're both food related. Outstanding. Well, we know that a lot of you speak other languages at home. I know you've got idioms and things that just don't quite translate into English as clearly as they are in the original language. Let us know 877-929-9673 are email words at wayward radio dot org or spill it all on Twitter at. Hello, you have a way with words. Hello. My name is Lennon. I'm calling from San Diego, California. Hey, Lennon, what's going on? Well, I was having a debate on Facebook, of course, with a buddy of mine. About the Mac in Mac and cheese. And we're discussing and we're wondering if the Mac was short for macaroni.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"This week I came across the expression Barker's egg. Do you know these two markers eggs? Oh, this has got a flavor to it. Does it? This has a slangy flavor to it. It does have a slangy flake. Barker's egg. This is saying, it's a dog related thing. Parker. Yeah. When I first saw it, I thought Barker's egg will that must be from a specific bird, you know, bark or such and such and the egg is a special egg, but no a Barker's egg in Australia is when you're taking your dog for a walk and you have that little plastic bag. Pick up the Barker's egg. The doggy doo that you pick up, right? That's right. And we are picking up right where we left off. In this special edition of a way with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett. Today we're looking back at some calls about critters. One of our youngest listeners asked about us saying that you may have wondered about two. My name's Edie from Texas and can you please tell me whether it's afraid it's raining passes off come from? Where are the phrase it's raining cats and dogs come from? Where did you come across that that made you think about this? It was a rainy day and I was watching The Rain come down
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to a special edition of a way with words, the show about language and how we use it, I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Today we're looking back at some of our favorite conversations about cats and dogs, and a few other animals besides. Cats and dogs prowl around inside some interesting English words, for example, the adjective should toy it. That's CH AT OY, ANT. It describes something that's shimmering like a cat's eyes. Like you might talk about a situat gemstone. And she told comes from the French word for cat. And don't forget about sleuth. You and I do a lot of sleuthing. And sleuth is a shortening of the word sleuth hound. In the 15th century the name sleuth hound applied to a bloodhound with a strong sense of smell, but it wasn't until the 19th century that sleuth came to apply to a private investigator instead of to the dog. And then there are all those funny words that our own pets inspire. Emily called from San Diego to talk about one of them, the word blip.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Radio org slash contact. Our team includes senior producer Stephanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felton, and quiz guy John Chanel. We'd love to hear from you, no matter where you are in the world, go to wayward radio dot org slash contact. Subscribe to the podcast here hundreds of past episodes and get the newsletter at wayward radio dot ORG. Whenever you have a language story or question, our toll free line is open in the U.S. and Canada, one 8 7 7 9 two 9 9 6 7 three or send your thoughts to words at wayward radio work. Away with words is an independent production of wayward Inc, a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Special thanks to Michael Brest Lauer, Josh eccles, Claire rotting Bruce rogo, Rick sidon worm and Betty Willis. Thanks for listening. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett until
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Pot of soup where we like to take samples from time to time. Well, thank you for explaining. All right, take care now and be well. You too. Bye bye. Bye bye. What are the language collisions in your house or your neighborhood or your city? Let us know 877-929-9673 or send your stories about language in email to words at wayward radio dot org. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi. This is Madison calling from Wilmington, North Carolina. Hello, Madison. Welcome to the show. Well, I was calling to ask you about something that my grandfather used to say. Which is that he would tell us to take Churchill's advice. And I wanted to see what I could learn about that phrase. Take Churchill's advice. Oh boy, a Churchill had a lot of advice. Some of it good, some of rascally. What was it? So when he would tell us that we knew that he was basically telling us to go try to use the bathroom while you have the chance. Churchill device says, go to the bathroom every chance that you get. So if you're on a road trip and you're stopping for gas and you're like, well, I don't really have to go right now, but you know, I may as well take Churchill's advice. We're here. Or something like that, you know? Yeah, yeah. Why would Churchill say that? I have no idea. Like you said, Churchill was known for saying a lot of wacky things. So I was just wondering, is that something like do other people say that? Is that something that, you know, where would he have gotten that from? Is that something his family made up? Because I've never heard anybody or run into anybody else who knows what that means. First of all, Madison, I would say that's excellent advice, wouldn't you? Yeah, you know, it does come in handy. Right. Carpe p.m.. But it didn't come from Churchill as you might have suspected. Okay, there is a quotation floating around that a lot of people repeat that goes something like never pass up the chance to sit down or go to the bathroom, and it often gets attributed to Churchill, but it sort of like one of those memes that go around the Internet like, you know, you see a picture of Abraham Lincoln, which says, don't believe everything you read on the Internet. The source of that quote. Yeah, so that's not advice from Churchill, but there is a bit more to that story, isn't there grant? Yeah, there really is. There was a contemporary of Churchill. One of the biggest scandals of the age in the late 1940s was when the king of England abdicated the throne to marry the American Wallace Simpson, who had been divorced twice. And Edward wrote a book that was first serialized in newspapers across the English speaking world. And in that book, and in those serialized articles in the newspapers, he uses an expression that's very similar to that. He says, perhaps one of the only positive pieces of advice that I was ever given was that supplies by an old courtier who observed only two rules really count, never miss an opportunity to relieve yourself, never miss a chance to sit down and rest your feet. And this is from his book called a king's story, 1951, and at that point he was no longer king who was his official title as the duke of Windsor. And there's a British scholar called Nigel Rhys, who for a very long time has been researching quotations. And he has a fantastic newsletter called quote unquote and a great website by the same name. And he believes Nigel Rhys believes that it may go back even further among the royals, the royal families. He thinks it may have been said by the very first duke of Wellington Arthur wellesley as always make water when you can. Because it's attributed to that first duke of Wellington, but I don't have a date on that. But it is possible that instead of Churchill, it comes from other British August figures of note. Who have to make lots of public appearances. I mean, this makes sense to me. Yeah. Yeah, you're always being shuttled around from important event to important event and people always wanted to catch your eye or catch your arm and talk to you and don't forget that you have very human needs that are private that don't involve other people. Well, that makes sense. Madison, thank you so much for calling today. And it doesn't matter that your grandpa didn't get it quite right. It was still really good advice to pass along to you. It is, and you know he had a lot of good advice. Thank you for letting me ask about that. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was. All right, take care. Call us again sometime. Bye. Take care. Bye bye. And you know if there's a famous saying or quotation that you've been repeating for years and now you're wondering, do I have that right? Is that really the person who said it? Do I even have the words right? Let us check that for you. 877-929-9673 email words at wayward radio dot org or find a dozen other ways to reach us at wayward radio dot org slash contact. Our team includes senior producer Stephanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felton, and quiz guy John Chanel. We'd love to hear from you, no matter where you are in the world, go to wayward radio dot org slash contact. Subscribe to the podcast here hundreds of past episodes and get the newsletter at wayward radio dot ORG. Whenever you have a language story or question, our toll free line is open in the U.S. and Canada, one 8 7 7 9 two 9 9 6 7 three, or send your thoughts to words at wayward radio org. Away with words is an independent production of wayward Inc, a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Special thanks to Michael Brest Lauer, Josh eccles, Claire grating, Bruce rogo, Rick seidan worm and Betty Willis. Thanks for listening. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett until
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"On the line. Yeah. And I love that so it's funny because my wife and I are both lawyers. So it's hilarious that ended up being illegal to so yeah, hair splitting is in your history. These are the kinds of conversations you have on the road then. So what's the difference between the part where your calling someone into court and you vouch someone by actively making them come to the legal field and then the part where they actually like the vouch for like bringing someone. Like how did you get on the same side of the V, if that makes sense? How did you get on the same team? Yeah, so in the legal sense to prove that somebody own land, you literally would have somebody show up and saying, yes, I can verify that Martha doesn't own these acres that she says she owns because I was there. And they were bequeathed to her by her mother, blah, blah, blah. So that's part of the vouching, the legal vouching process was witnesses coming to say it because you might have a whole body of people who couldn't read and write. So the word of your neighbors or the word of your community was as important as paper. So that's why vouching really mattered. I would call them as my witness because I believe in this as well. Yeah, calling. Yeah, that was like mark that was saying. Yeah. So that vote caught it. It's funny how often it shows up and vocal, of course. And evoke call to mind or convoke called together provoke to call forth. I love the hair splitting that you do. It's very much worth what we do. Well, thank you. This is fascinating. Yeah, it is. Emma, thank you so much for your call. Call us again some time when you've had this road discussion. Okay, well I love your show. I really appreciate being on so thank you. Thank you so much and we appreciate it. Take care of yourself and be well. Thanks for calling. Bye bye. And come to think of it, the word voucher followed a somewhat similar path originally voucher was a legal term that meant the calling of a person into court to warrant the title to a property, and then in the 17th century, it was used as evidence of a transaction, a business receipt, and now it's a document that you can exchange for goods or services, like school vouchers, for example. Yeah, exactly. Every time I think about it, I'm amazed. I never stopped being amazed. The fact that these history of this language persist this Latin shows up again and again in our everyday language. It's astonishing that something should have such endurance. Indeed. When you talked about volcano, meaning call, having and it does have all this history and language, but you know, it doesn't give us the word call. And you can call us 877-929-9673. Here's a tweet from writer Ian bogus that I think you'll appreciate. He's suggesting the name for a bar. And he says, a bar called the copy desk, where they offer an alternative to your drink order, and you get kind of really upset for a second, but then realize, no, that's, in fact, a better order. Oh, that makes sense because at a newspaper or a print publication, the copy desk is where you submit your story for editing and you get it back and you realize they've changed it and your first year upset and you're like, oh wait, this is a better story and I'm going to look great when this goes to print because my name is on it and there's this exactly. A good editor is worth their waiting goals. Absolutely. And they don't get credit. You get the credit. They're just like, you know, in tiny prints on the masthead somewhere, you know, and that's that page somewhere. So shout out to copy editors. 877-929-9673 words at wayward radio dot org. This show's about language seen through the lens of family, history, and culture. Stick around for more. You're listening to away with words, this show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. If you pull down an English dictionary from the shelf, it's a fairly simple matter to look up a word. You know that word starting with a, you're going to be at the beginning and words that start with Z are going to be at the end, and if a word shares the same initial letters as in other words, like, say, the words, production, and progress. You just keep looking letter by letter from left to right until you find what you want. And that's simple. All you had to do to understand this system was learn your ABCs, just 26 letters. Using a Chinese dictionary, though, is quite different. A Chinese character is a unit of meaning. It's roughly equivalent to a word. And to look up a Chinese character, you pull down that dictionary, and you first either go to the front or the back of the book where there's a table that lists the particular components of Chinese characters. In these components of strokes are called radicals. There are 214 of those, and assigned to each radical is a number and you follow that number to another table and you find all the characters that contain that radical and there can be as many as 64. And then once you find the character you want in this table, now you have the page number in the actual dictionary itself. So you turn to that page and you hunt until you find the character and the definition. So it's a lot more complicated or consider typewriters. The first qwerty typewriters were marketed in the United States in the early 1870s and these were portable and relatively easy to use. But the first Chinese typewriter, which was invented a few decades later, looked like a small table with this huge flat disc containing more than 4000 commonly used characters, arranged in concentric rings. And you would use one hand to rotate the disc and use a long, thin pointer to select the character you want, and you use the other hand to position the carriage that holds the paper underneath. All of which means that a century ago, China faced a huge challenge. How do you adapt this magnificent Chinese script into modern technology? How do you reinvent the Chinese language so that you can more easily use things like computers? It's a fascinating story and it's told in a new book called kingdom of characters, the language revolution that made China modern. It's by Jing su, and she's a Professor of East Asian languages at Yale, and she's written a history of this massive technological transformation in China, and she also writes about this colorful assortment of innovators through the years who were passionate about the Chinese language and about reinventing it for the modern age. It's a fascinating read grant. Yeah, it sounds fascinating. Wow, it took so many brilliant bright people to sort that out to take this sophisticated script and put it into our computers and to make it possible to produce all these great books and beautiful text and newspapers and so forth. Well, speaking of great books, this one is called kingdom of characters, the language revolution that made China modern and is by Jing su that's Ji and G TSU.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"As if the McRib couldn't get any better. Bacon and ranch just entered the chat. The bacon ranch mc crispy, available at participating McDonald's for a limited time. But yeah, listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. In a Martha Barnett, I was charmed this week to learn that there is a German word for the electronic dashboard display on your car. You know, all those little flashing lights and different colors. It's moise Aquino. And moise Aquino translates as mouse cinema. You can just imagine the little furry guy sitting up there watching the show. There goes this pedometer. That's really good. How do you spell that moise Aquino? You moise a keynote. I just thought that was charming. And actually there's a Hungarian word ager mosey, which also means mouse cinema and people are using it to describe any device that has an electronic display like your mobile phone. So you can take your little mouse cinema and curl up with it and watch a movie. Right, yeah, you're in bed, cut the blankets and grub a mode. Curled up blankets wrapped around you, warm, and cozy with your mask cinema going. That's nice. I love it. Well, this show is about words and
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"In parts of Appalachia, if you want to describe coffee that's really weak, you can describe it as scared water. I love that. Scared water. Don't give me any of that scared water. I like that. A whole bunch. I do too. 8 7 7 9 9 9 6 7 three. You're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. If you're reading a book with an index, you probably take that index for granted. But it turns out that indexes in their history are far more interesting than you might think. And their story is told in a delightfully nerdy new book by Dennis Duncan, is called appropriately enough. Index a history of thee. And it turns out that the history of the index is really about the history of writing and the history of books themselves. Even in antiquity, Plato worried that the new technology of the time that is writing and reading was going to make people stupid because they'd stop memorizing things and they'd be dependent on the written word. And even in the Middle Ages as scribes started using indexes, these new contrivances were not entirely welcome surprisingly enough. Indexes provoke similar concerns, people worried, well, if a book has an index, why would anybody actually read a book? And in the early 18th century, Jonathan Swift worried that people would pretend to understand a book by scouting through the index as if a traveler should go about to describe a palace when he is seen nothing but the privy. And it's also a hearty appreciation of professional indexers. In fact, the author gives a shout out specifically to Paula Clarke bane, who is the professional who wrote an index to this book, and she shows how authorial and even playful a good indexer can be. He also includes a computer generated index, and it's just not as good. It's just not as interesting. Is not as alive as the one that Paula Clark bane produced. I looked at that computer index, and I agree. It was fine. I could use it, but it was lifeless. It didn't, it didn't have the extra knowledge, the pragmatics that a human would bring to the job understanding that a was a part of B and that you should include it as a sub index item. Computerized stuff just isn't quite there yet for that. The other thing I was thinking as I browsed this book and I didn't read it in order to just in order to do what is called a Washington read. Do you remember what that term is? It's when you take a book, you look for your name in the index, if you don't find it, you put it back. Right, right. There's a famous story about William F. Buckley sending a copy of his latest book to Norman Mailer and in the index where Norman Mailer's name is listed. Buckley wrote hi. Well, that book again is called index a history of the, and it's by Dennis Duncan. I'm looking forward to finishing the book. We'd love to hear about what you're reading. We are so delighted and our bedside tables are stacked with the books that you send us in the books that you recommend. 877-929-9673. And said your recommendations to us in email, words wayward radio dot org. Hello, you have a way with words. Hey, this is Andrew from Lexington and South Carolina. Hey, Andrew, welcome. Hi, Andrew, what's up? So I guess I'll just jump right into it. My question would be or just growing up, my mom and my grandma used to both say to me, like whenever I wanted to put something in the microwave or reheat something, that would always say, you know, just Luke it or I would just look it in the microwave. And I just kind of wanted to know where that word came from and how it relates to microwaving something. Okay. So when would this be? What decade are we talking? I was born in the late 90s, so I would say, you know, early 2000s is mostly when I would hear it. The first place that we have print records and print versus spoken because obviously we can't track what people say. But if they write it down, we can match the words to date. And that first match that we have is from the daily tar heel, which is a student newspaper of the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1982, of students, this long jokey piece about students nuking food and caught on a college campus, talking about melting things in the microwave. Which is really interesting because if obviously nuking things and nuclear weapons is terrible and we're talking about going from the idea of nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons to microwaving food. It's just a, it's a really big leap, right? But there is a path there. There's a path. Yeah. And part of it has to do with how we got from the word nuclear to the word nuke in UK. And it happened almost immediately after the nuclear weapons of or used during World War II by the United States on Japan. The idea of nuclear weapons was pervasive throughout the western world, and by the late 50s nuke as a shorthand for weapons themselves was common in the popular press. And in the military in the 1960s, newt could be used to mean a nuclear powered sea craft, like a submarine, or a sailor that was assigned to such a ship and in the public sphere in nuke was used as a shorthand for a nuclear power station. So there's this period in the 1960s where you could see a protest where people were chanting no nukes and you might not know whether or not they were talking about no nuclear power stations or no nuclear weapons because they could be protesting against either or both, I guess. Pretty interesting, but also at the same time that verb to nuke was growing. And the obvious use of to attack with nuclear weapons was there. But even almost immediately it starts to be used hyperbolically, which is the great American way with language where we exaggerate or understate to just a ridiculous level. And we used it almost immediately to mean to punish or destroy to ruin. There's one quote from the early 1960s talking about getting revenge on a fellow air force cadet. Isn't called nuking them. And this is called semantic bleaching, which is a kind of amelioration where something goes from really negative to fairly positive. Wow, that is that's really cool. Yeah. And then it just kept going from there until we get to the idea where you can nuke your nachos, to warm them up. Of course, the main problem is that there's nothing nuclear about a microwave. It's a radio waves in there. Right, that's what I thought as well. So I didn't see the connection before, but it's starting to make sense now. Yeah, when the microwaves popped up in the mid 1970s, I think it was even though the name of how the food was cooked is right there. The machine is called by the method. I think it was and maybe it still is mysterious to people. I mean, you can see through the little window, the food bubbling, and the food is hot when you take it out, but the device itself is cool. It's kind of like magic. So I think in people's minds, this mysteriousness of nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the mysteriousness of microwaves just kind of went hand in hand. They just a weird mysterious technology to people. So Amelia, yeah, that's what happened with that one. Something terrible becomes something mundane. Yeah. Now I know. That's awesome. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, you're welcome, Andrew, calls again sometime, all right? All righty. Sounds good. Y'all
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. When you answer the phone, do you have a favorite word or phrase that's a little bit out of the ordinary or maybe know somebody who does that? We asked readers of our email newsletter that question, and they had some surprising responses. We heard from Matt on Nantucket island, Massachusetts, who told us that when he picks up the phone, he says, front desk. He says he does that in an attempt to stop the caller's brain. If only for a nanosecond and adds, it often works. We heard from Ann Lynn in Ithaca, New York, who wrote that her grandfather, who was born in the late 1800s, and lived in Ontario, Canada, used to pick up the phone and say, commence. Just commence. And then for Marlene dryden, this question brought back memories of her great aunt eula mcquaid of Salisbury North Carolina. She says, miss eula would hear her phone ring from a little alcove in the wall of her foyer and she'd slowly walk over there, pick it up calmly and holler. All right? All right. That's fantastic. Isn't that great? She says, that beautiful, nearly tidewater accent and the smell of cornbread are the most vivid memories I have of her. And I mean, I wonder if that's a vestige of when you had operators plugging in the cords. Right, right. When you did need to make sure that the line was okay before you began your conversation. We would love to hear more about how you answer the phone. What do you say? Is it funny? Is it old fashioned? Is it something cool or weird? 877-929-9673 email words at wayward radio dot org. And the lines are open to talk about anything related to language. You can talk to us on Twitter too at ORD. Hello, you have a way with words. Hello. This is Mary Ann. I'm calling from bardas to Georgia. Hi, Mary. Hi. Welcome to the show. Yeah, what would you like to talk with us about? Well, I want to know the proper way to pronounce the word spelled beo in a, if I DES. I'm not sure if the BO in is pronounced bone or bond, and I'm not sure if I DES is pronounced fides by these or one syllable 5s. Oh boy. Marianne, where have you run across this expression spelled Bon a fid? I read every night before I go to sleep, and I ran across it in a book. And it's one of those words that I have no trouble reading, but if I try to say it, it sticks in my throat because no way I tried to pronounce it sounded correct. And I looked it up and listened to several pronunciations and I got even more confused because there seemed to be multiple so called acceptable ways to pronounce this term. And I thought, I have to take a stand on this, kind of like when you take a stand on which way you're going to put the toilet paper on the toilet paper holder either over or under. I had to find out the best way to pronounce it. So I'm prevailing upon you to solve this for me. Oh boy. Well, the answer is over, right? Over. For the toilet paper. Right. Yeah. Thank you. And this term means something like authentic credentials, right? Isn't that the sense that you have when you're reading and you come across this expression? Authenticity. Exactly. Okay. I tell you, Marianne, I have always pronounced it bonafides. Bona fides, but you know, there are some authorities who have sneered at that pronunciation, and they say it should be bona fides, but anyway, bona fides and bona fides are usually the pronunciations heard in the United States. It was borrowed intact from Latin and it spelled the same way Bon a and then separate word FI DES. And in Latin, you pronounce it bona fides in that literally means good faith, so the fides means faith. It's like our word fidelity. And the bona means good. It's like our word bonus. So bona fides in Latin and somebody who's trying to show off that they've had a little Latin may say bona fides. But you know, that's pretentious. I mean, we're speaking English and not Latin and if we're going to be that strict about pronouncing words from Latin, then we shouldn't be talking about quoting somebody verbatim, because in Latin, it's where bottom. And we shouldn't be talking about things. Add infinitum because in Latin, it would be odd infinito. Marianne, the other thing that complicates this is the fact that the fee days in Latin bonafides is actually one of those rare Latin nouns that end in S, but they're actually singular. They're not that many of those. That means that when this term was adopted whole into English in the 17th century, people might say something like that person's bona fides is impeccable that meaning they're good faith of their sincerity is impeccable and it was only later that people started saying that person's bona fides or that person's bona fides are impeccable. So I come down on the side of just saying, find a different word, credentials, good faith sincerity, something like that. Well, I like that recommendation that simplifies my life tremendously. However, I am going to practice saying bona fides. So if I am forced to say it in a conversation, I will know with certainty the way I'm supposed to pronounce it. And I like the clean contemporary sound of bona fides instead of the Latin, which as you say, sounds a little pretentious. Exactly. So bonafides or bona fides. Or as you suggested earlier, avoid using it and say something like good faith or credibility or credentials or authenticity. Right. I like that. Take care very well.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"On or later. And so that's how we got that spelling. Which is fine. So by the 17th century, that spelling had changed. And so that's the short version of the story. But the strange thing about this is the French didn't spell aisle with an S either originally, but they spelled it IL or Y Ali. So how did that get there? There was another whole batch different batch of scholars who tried to improve French by making it more like Latin. And they noted that il E meaning island was derived from the Latin insula, which met island, and so they changed to be spelled ISL E and that's what was borrowed into English and give us our word island today. But that didn't last and later the S because it was no longer unpronounced in French, they got rid of it. And now they went back to spelling aisle as and they put a little circumflex, which is like a little upside down hat over the eye to indicate that the S was once there. So we don't pronounce the S in island because the French don't pronounce the S and aisle, and that is the word that we borrowed from the French. That's interesting. We have a lot of these kind of historical remnants in our language. When you see something curious, like a letter not being pronounced, it is a really strong clue alley that there's a story there. And in this case, it tells us that the island came to us from French. And so we have this little note that says there's a word history here. I am has a little bit of French history that S is not pronounced in the French. Therefore, we don't pronounce it in this word island. So I'm going to recommend a book. It's by Erica o'quinn okay R ENT. It's called highly irregular why tough through and dough don't rhyme and other oddities of the English language. It's a very accessible book, their cute cartoons in it. And it tells you a lot of these stories like why there's an H in the word ghost, for example. So you might look for that book. Yeah, actually sounds really interesting. Well, ally, good luck in school. Thank you for your call. We really appreciate it. And keep your enthusiasm going. It'll get you far. And thank you for allowing me to be on the show. Oh, our pleasure. As always, have you? Yeah. Take care now. Bye bye. So pick up that phone and call us 877-929-9673. We'd love to talk with you about your language question or send it to us in email. Words at wayward radio dot ORG. Away with words is about language seen through family, history, and culture. Stay tuned for more. You're listening to away with words the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. In the early 1830s, Margaret Scott gatty took note of a sundial that was on the porch of the church that her husband pastured in Yorkshire, England, and inscribed on that sundial were the rhyming Latin words fugit hora aura. And that translates as the hour flies. Pray. In a cottage nearby, also had a sundial, but it bore a Latin inscription that translates as there are no steps backward. And another neighbor had a sundown with the Latin words that translate as I wait for no one. And Margaret Scott Getty was so intrigued by these inscriptions that she started collecting them. And then as often happens when you start collecting things, her friends started collecting them for her. And she went on to become a popular writer of children's books, and she kept collecting those inscriptions in an 1872, she published a beautiful comprehensive book on the topic. It's called the book of sundials, and it was later revised with her daughter's help, and it's just gorgeous. It's full of fascinating information about sundials, and it includes 1682 examples of sundial mottoes. And one of the things I love about these mottos, they've been described as more touching than tombstones. There's something kind of meditative about them, a little bit melancholy, and a good reminder to be mindful of making the most of the hours that we have on earth. And I first became aware of them when I listened to the S town podcast where journalist Brian Reed interviews a clockmaker in Woodstock, Alabama, who points out that when you see a sundial, you should always go look at it because there will always be some kind of inscription on it. And so I was thrilled to pieces when I came across this book. Yeah, the book is amazing by the fourth edition. I think which was published in 1900. It is a phenomenal work. It's beautiful to look at amazing to read. Many of them are religious because they sundials tend to appear in churchyards. And as you said, many of them talk about using your time wisely. But some of them don't one of my favorite ones is in German, but it translates into somewhat archaic English as he hath made his choice a right, who count it but the hours of light basically saying you can use your time well, but you should also make Mary, which I think is important advice to all of us. And there are the well, the kind of mystical ones, like one written in Latin in a churchyard, southeastern France right on the border with Italy. It translates as the light makes shadow, but the truth makes mysteries which makes you just want to turn right around and leave that churchyard. Pursued by who knows what? I don't know what's happening there, but I just want to know what time it was. I forgot my watch. It's just interesting all these brief ruminations on time and how we spend our time and what will become of us when our time is done. There are several beautiful copies of this book online. We'll link to them from our website and you can explore them and find your favorite sundial mottos. Or you can share little epigraphs or epigrams or little phrases or things that you found in your reading that you think are wonderful and that we should know about and that we can share with everyone else. Let us know in email words at wayward radio dot org or tell us on the telephone 877-929-9673 is toll free in the United States and Canada. Hello, you have a way with words. Hello, this is Kayla Meyer calling from Omaha Nebraska. Hi Caleb, welcome. Thank you. Well, I'm calling in because recently our elderly dog has been having lots of accidents in the house. He gets scared by weather changes and thunderstorms, all of the above. And my husband keeps saying that our dog is pissing everywhere in the house. And I told him, can you please not use the word piss to describe his accident? There's a whole bunch of different words. I think you could use. But then when I was telling him this, I realized I said, I'm so pissed that you keep using the word piss. Yeah. First of all, I'm sorry about your dog. That's really tough. But what word would you prefer he used? I said, I prefer if he said our dog peed in the house, or just had an accident. And I don't know why, but I just find the word piss to
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Here is a wonderful word that's making the rounds in Japan. It's taipa Tai PA. And typo refers to the level of satisfaction gained compared with the time spent. And like many Japanese neologisms, it's a shortening of other words, taipa comes from Taiwan, which is borrowed from the English time performance. And taipa is particularly popular among younger folks, especially those born between 1995 and 2010. If you want optimum type or time performance, you might watch a film or listen to a podcast at twice the normal speed, or you might look for recut versions of a movie that just show the major plot points or skip to the songs that you like in a playlist. And grant I certainly seek out typo when I'm listening to audiobooks. I often turn them a little bit faster than what they should be. Oh, it's really. Yeah, I used to do that and I started realizing it was affecting my day to today conversation with people where I felt everyone was tracking around me. I had to go back to normal speed. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. But type, what a word for the modern age where we're just trying to cram more life into the time we're given. Right, right. We're being inundated with so much media and so how do you speed things up so that you get through it all? But we feel so obligated to consume the media that we're presented with. Whether it be in text or video or audio form, we feel obligated. I wonder why. I wonder why we don't just simply push it away and say, no, thank you. It's really like shoveling snow in a blizzard, isn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah. I've draining the ocean with a teaspoon. It's just never going to end. I think this is why best of lists thrive. The best of 2023 of this order of that sort because you need filters. You need people to curate quality for you so that you're not having to sort it yourself and have to do things like watch a movie at twice the speed. That sounds ridiculous. But action movies are fast enough without seeing a kick punches at a double speed. I can't imagine. Well, we I love talking about language on this show and we often venture into things like besides new words. We've talked about slaying that your kids bring home or slang you remember from your old childhood, the books that you read, the books that we read and we like to talk about those gentle disputes you have at work and at home about the right way to say things in the right way to write them. Let us know what you're thinking 877-929-9673. That's toll free in the United States and Canada. And if you're somewhere else, you can send us an email, words, wayward radio dot org or find lots of other ways to reach us on our website at wayward radio dot org slash contact. Hey there, you have a way with words. Hi. Hi, who's this? How are you? This is Carol from Iowa. Hi Carol, welcome. What can we do for you? Thank you. Well, I have a question about us saying that my dad used to use his entire life. He was a really quiet guy, not a conversationalist in any way. And his name was dawn, and so I've in conversation he would use a lot of what I now call Don isms. Such as, I wish I was more rich instead of good-looking nor mother didn't have all dumb kids. But he used one the most, and it was really annoying. And over the years, we would just groan, but in response to us, maybe trying to include him in the conversation we might say something like, well, dad, what do you think about that? And he would honest to goodness almost always say, well, I think it takes a big dog to weigh a ton. And we would all just look at each other like, what the heck? And we asked him, well, what does that mean? He would just laugh. Or, you know, it really did get annoying over the years. Bless his heart. But we've never known what it meant. And I guess we never bothered to look it up, but it didn't make sense to us in any way, that thing. So that's what I'm asking is, do you know what that means? And the phrase again. It takes a big dog to weigh a ton. It takes a big dog to weigh a ton. And did you have any guesses as to what it meant? None. I have no inkling. You know, Carol, he wasn't the only one to say it, and there are quite a few different versions of it. It goes back at least a hundred years and when people use it genuinely, or have used it generally in the past, they've used it to mean it, it takes a strong person to handle a problem, or it takes a strong person to do what they say they'll do. Or that problem is going to take a lot of figuring out. It's a metaphorical. But the dog changes in the saying and the weight changes in the saying. So sometimes you might say, it takes a big woman or it takes a big man or a big pig, a big hog, a big steer, or you might say a mighty big one or a pretty big one. And then the ton could be a thousand pounds, 500 pounds, a hundred pounds, 50 pounds. And so all these different variations have been used over the many years. And all of these are just the kind of thing that they do appear in conversations and in writing as a non sequitur. But they're often a way to say, I don't know, but this sounds like a real problem and it kind of sucks for you. Interesting. That makes a total sense. And now I'll have to think back to the thousands of times we use. I also love that it's just piping up and saying the obvious. It does indeed take a big dog to weigh a ton. Yeah. Yeah. And the funny part is I've never heard anybody else use that saying. So I'm glad to know he didn't just make it up. Yeah, it used to be more common, but I think this one is fading out, I think this one will soon be just a memory and family lore, just like yours. Interesting. Interesting well, now I know. Now we all know. Now we all know. And thank you for sharing your memories and your family lore. Yeah, now we all know some dawn isms. Yeah, I'd share the rest of you. Some are some are inappropriate, but I like the other one you shared about. I wish I was, I wish I was born rich instead of so good-looking. I wish I was more rich instead of good-looking. He liked that one too. I love it. Take care now. Pretty well. Okay. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye, Carol. It's always great to hear about those endearing family phrases. Share yours with us 8 7 7 9 two 9 9 6 7 three or send it in email that address is words at wayward radio dot
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Means with his hands behind his back. I mean, you've seen this guy outside. The universal and the world over. He's retired. He's got nothing better to do, but look to see what these young his youngsters are up to and just kind of just, you know. These ultra cockers in New York just standing there and just kept saying from the behind the fence. Giving advice. Yeah, the word is from a dialectal word that means little man, and it was popularized by writer danilo mazzotti. Perfect. We love hearing the new words from other languages. What languages do you speak? But there's something new happening in them, 877-929-9673. Words at wayward radio dot org, Twitter, at WA, WOR D. Beer listening to away with words, the show out language, and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Grant, have you been watching severance on Apple TV? Watch the first episode with my family, and I have to say that is some of the most striking called it filmmaking or show making I have ever seen. Yes, it is the weirdest show with an amazing cast. I've been describing it to people as sort of Twin Peaks meets the office meets 2001 a space Odyssey. It's a fascinating program that raises the question of what if the person you are at work knows nothing about the person you are at home. You don't know who your Friends and family are or what you do in your spare time. And when you're at home, you know nothing about who you are at work and what you do. And as you know, from that, just that first episode is sort of creepy and dystopian, but sometimes it's laugh out loud funny. And I keep wanting to talk about it and now I have an excuse to because it includes a teachable moment of etymology. Oh boy, let's hear it. Yeah, once you get farther into it, there's a book that claims to give the origin of the word camaraderie. And it says most linguists agree that it comes from the Latin camera, which means a device used to take a photograph. And of course, the best photographs are not of individuals, but of groups of happy friends who love each other deeply. Not exactly. That was actually a laugh out loud, lined for me because in Latin the word camera means room. And that eventually gave rise to the French ward camarade, which means somebody who shares a room, a friend or a comrade, and that gave us camaraderie. And when you're talking about the modern photographic device called a camera, that's a shortening of an earlier term, as you know, probably grant from doing this in an elementary school, people knew for centuries that you could use a black box with a lens at one end to project images of external objects in that box was called a camera obscura literally a dark room in Latin, and then later when modern photographic technology came along, camera obscura was shortened to just camera. And I have to say that in defense of severance, the book that professes to have the etymology of this word is sort of this flaky self help book to begin with. But it gives me an excuse to talk about the show, which I can't seem to stop doing. It is funny how often on television, particularly obviously not the nonfiction shows, but the analogies are wrong or off. And irritates me because I'm like, well, with a little bit of effort, they could have gotten that right. And then all the people who watched this would have had the correct etymology. Yeah, we're available for consultation. Within the universe of this weird weird show, it fit because the book was junkie and so maybe that was chunky too. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I'm going to go back and rewatch the whole thing, I think. We'd love talking about etymology and word origins, 877-929-9673 is toll free in the U.S. and Canada 24 hours a day, and you can email us words at wayward radio dot org or try us on Twitter at WA. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Kathy. Hi, Kathy. Where are you calling from? I'm in San Antonio, Texas right now. Wow, welcome to the show. Thank you. What would you like to talk with us about Kathy? Well, I was calling about the topic of the relationship between culture and language and I think you all put out a call about that and I just think that it's interesting. I mean, we know that language is a manifestation of the culture, but I think it's interesting that language kind of helps to maintain and translate the culture. Here in Texas, I guess in many parts of the country where so concerned about losing our ethnic language, our ethnic culture, but the language associated with that. And so here in Texas, I'm at the Hana and part of the mejia culture, the Aztec nation as it was renamed in the 1880s, but that she too make a Tribeca tribes were all here, still. And we're concerned about losing the language of the conquerors. The language of the conquistadores, which is Spanish, but really our language goes further than further back than that. And I think it's interesting to me that not well language is preserved in the Spanish language. The TL at the end of a lot of the words that were spoken by the mahia nation were taken into the Spanish language, but they end in TE, so words like tomato, aguacate, these mean tomato and sweet potato, avocado, all these words are in the Spanish language, but they actually even go back to the meal language. And we use them every day in our saints. We call them beaches. The details are the saints that we have. Yes, yes. So one that I mean, our family uses almost every other day as men as wood as much. Which is fewer donkeys more corn. Corn, but that's one of the words that was taken into the Spanish language from the mejia. There's an interesting how often the words are food words.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"grant barrett" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You're listening to away with words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Grant, we've gotten a lot of reaction to our conversation with Haley. She's the poet in Minnesota who wondered if there weren't more terms for the seasons than just winter spring summer and fall. The times between the seasons where something weather wise is happening, but it doesn't really fit the other categories. And it turns out that there are lots of terms for those mini seasons. We heard from David Alice in Burlington, Vermont, who says in his state, they also have something called stick season. And stick season is once the leaves of all fallen and there's no snow on the ground yet, typically in November. David says, I suppose, because autumn is so spectacular here that it's quite the contrast when the leaves are suddenly down the forests look like big sticks. And he says he'd never heard of that until he moved to Vermont, and we also heard from Linda lavalette, who lives in rural upper Michigan, and she said, we refer to the time between winter and spring as mud season. We heard that from more than a few listeners, Muncie's in his very popular around the country. I don't think they throw parties, but they don't look forward to it. No, not at all. And it reminds me that in old English before we started using the term February for that second month of the year, there was the term Saul monath, which may mean mud month, which makes a lot of sense. Yeah, at least in the northern hemisphere mud month. Oh, this is good. What do you call the other seasons of the year, not winter spring summer fall or autumn, but the times in between? Let us know 877-929-9673 toll free in the U.S. and Canada or email your thoughts ideas or questions about anything having to do with language to words at wayward radio dot org or talk to us on Twitter at WA Y O RD. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi. How are you? My name's Natalia. I'm calling from Rhode Island. Yeah, we're glad to have you, Natalya. What's up? I had a question about a phrase that we always used to use in my family, and it's when you're driving behind a car for a really long time on the highway. And you develop kind of a relationship with them. And it's always for a car that's really reliable and they're driving the speed limit and they're very safe and you can just kind of follow them for a long time sometimes hours. And we are always used to call them the follow John, like, oh, you know, we've got a great follow, John in front of us, or looks like our follow John is exiting. So we're going to have to find another one. And every time that you have to leave or they had to leave a kind of felt like you're breaking off a relationship. And I just realized that we might be the only people in the U.S. who use that phrase. It kind of came to asana in a funny path. And I didn't know if there was another word for it that we could use that maybe other people will understand and relate with. You said there's a story about follow John and how it became a family expression? Yeah, so the world originally from Poland. And before we moved to the U.S., my family lived briefly in Sweden. And they had a friend who owned just like a little sailboat. And every time that he found the sailboat, that seemed to actually know what they were doing. And how to navigate in the water and where to go. He'd always yell out. Follow John. And so then it caught on with my family when we moved to the U.S.. We kept it, and when we would use the phrase on the highway, it was always the only English phrase in what was otherwise a Polish sentence. And for years, I thought that that's just what Americans call that car. Oh my gosh. And I no longer think that's the case. I have never heard it, Martha. No, this is follow John in, right? Like JO 8 ten well, I mean, I don't know because it came from a Swedish person into our Polish family and into the U.S.. So I don't think there's a correct spelling. We only ever said it in the car. Oh, okay. But it's like somebody's name, it sounds like. Yes, although it was never John, it's always the name of the car was follow John. Right. Yeah. Like a compound. It's like a compound, right? Gosh, no. I have never heard of this. It does remind me of I have a friend from childhood who was on a really long drive to Florida, and he and this other woman kept passing each other and they would serve as, you know, to use your term, they would serve as each other's follow John, and it got to be kind of funny, and they started waving to each other, and the gas gauge got lower and lower, and at some point, my friend John scribbled the term coffee with a question mark on a piece of paper stuck it up in the window. They go to a truck stop in the next thing I know a few weeks later, his family is talking about freeway Jane and I'm saying, who is freeway James? And my friend John and freeway Jane got married. Oh, that's awesome. Oh my goodness. Wow. I mean, it really is like a relationship that you develop. Just a whole nother level. Yeah, but you may have given us a word for this because grant, I'm not aware of any term follow John. I mean, I use terms with less kind of story behind them like road buddy or pace car, pace car coming from car racing. And it's come up a few times on Reddit, I remember, and people there say things like car buddy or travel buddy, but these are all to be expected. These are all terms that you would create for that kind of person. But this is a shared experience. A lot of people have. That you talked to Natalia about the reliability of the other car. That's so important when you're in it for the long haul. They're making good lane choices, and they're doing a lot of passing. And that's what you want to do too. So you don't tire yourself out. Exactly. Exactly. They make the drive easier. And then when they leave, it's like a little part of your drive leads to. Yeah. There's a term coined by the social psychologist Stanley Milgram, familiar strangers. This was in his 1972 paper called the familiar stranger and aspect of urban anonymity, and it's about this these people that you see in your life constantly, but you don't really know. You know them and their behavior and where you encounter them regularly and maybe even you nod or do a little hand wave or a chin jut or something like that. But all they are is still strangers, but you're a little more likely to talk to them, should you be sitting next to them, say, in the theater or encounter them in line for food at a restaurant, just because they're I love that. Familiar strangers. Well, Natalia, if anybody else listening uses a term or uses follow John for this kind of relationship, I know we'll hear about it. And I'm so glad you brought up this topic. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. I would love to hear what other people call that car. Me too. Take care. Bye bye. All right, thank you. Bye. Take care. Bye bye. If you've got a word for Talia's experience of having a road buddy or a car body, this vehicle that you follow and they become your friend, even though you don't really know them, but you're following them for hours. If you have a name for that, let us know 877-929-9673 email words at wayward radio dot org or tell us on Twitter at hello, you have a way with words. Hello, this is Diana. From Socrates, New York, in the Hudson valley. Oh, nice. What's on your mind, Diana? Well, I really, really love hearing about the derivation of words.