17 Burst results for "Rachel Elizabeth"
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Show recently. And they said that so and so thought he was all that and the plate of witch crackers. Yeah, there are other people have played around with it, a plate of fries, a plate of chips, a plate of green beans, a plate of biscuits and gravy. They've done a variety of different things, but usually all that in a bag of chips is the more common. But yeah, it comes from black American English and like a lot of terms left the speech of black Americans and entered the mainstream to the usual channels of popular culture and it's a little dated now just so you know, and it's that used, but it's out there. Of coming back around too, so who knows? Maybe much younger than people start saying it. Thanks to you kind of. Maybe other than maybe we're transcending right now. As we speak. Maybe. Maybe not. We are all that in a jumbo bag of chips. Thank you so much. I was very hopeful. All right, take care. All right, bye bye. Bye. Thanks for calling. Bye bye. Well, if you're slaying as new or as slaying as old, we'd love to talk about it 877-929-9673. Our team includes senior producer Stephanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felton, production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weisler, 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
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Here's a cool term that you might want to extend as a metaphor in your own life. And that's the term channel fever. Channel fever refers to the feeling that sailors get when they're nearing home. You know, they're so anxious and excited. But they're not quite there yet. So the English term, so it's English sailors in the English Channel, but not quite to the port yet. Originally, yeah, yeah, probably probably arose during World War II, you know, coming back across the channel and seeing those white cliffs of Dover or something. Channel fever. Channel fever. When anything is almost over, you know, you're experiencing that channel fever. Yeah, we've extended the term senioritis in our House for that. Ah, there you go. Right, senioritis is when you're in high school and you're almost done and you just don't care about grades or class or anything about ready to graduate. So senior, you could have senioritis for almost ready to depart for a big trip. That senioritis for the trip. You're ready to go. Ready to go. Even though it's days away, you're at paying attention to what you're doing because your mind is already at the destination. 877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words. Hello. This is Mary in Laramie, Wyoming. Hello, Mary and Laramie. How are you doing? Well, I am hoping that you all can give me some information with regard to a term that my mother who was from Fort Worth Texas used frequently and that term is possible bath, as in take a possible bath, as opposed to a tub bath or a shower bath, or a bed bath or a sink bath. A possible bath. And what do you think she meant by that? Well, in our family, it meant taking a bath in the sink and just washing off the smelly parts of the body as in the one foot in the sink, the other foot in the sink. Under the arms, et cetera, et cetera. So that's what she meant by it. But I never could understand the meaning of the word possible. And I only heard it have only heard it in my lifetime coming from the mouths of Texans. Well, the expression is pretty straightforward. There's a saying that first you wash up as far as possible and then you wash down as far as possible. And then you wash your possibles. Okay. That is really interesting. Well, you're going to love this. It's not just Texas, in fact, if you take a look at James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses, there's a description of a possible bath in there. After heaven's sakes, that's amazing. How about that? One of the characters talks about how she washed up and down as far as possible and somebody else says, well, did you wash possible? I love it. Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah, it's also in Maya Angelou's wonderful book. I know why the cage bird sings. Wash as far as possible, then wash possible. Very good. Well, thank you so much for doing the research on that. We're always glad to help. Thank you so much for your call, Mary. You bet. Thank you. Thanks, Mary. Bye bye. Bye. What is the euphemistic of refined speech that you use to talk about difficult or awkward things 877-929-9673 email words at wayward radio dot org or tell us on Twitter at W ay WOR D. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weisler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"If you need a different idiom to describe somebody who's really corrupt or really crooked, you can always say, he was so crooked, he could hide behind a corkscrew. Isn't that a great visual? Yeah. That reminds me of my favorite one. It's calling something a revolving SOB. He's an SOB, no matter which way you look at it. And so that's good. 877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Daniel patullo. I'm calling from Youngstown, Ohio. Hi, Daniel. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So I've always had this question in my head, and I've never really been able to find an answer. Whenever I was getting my puppets car, when I was younger, without missing the beat, you would always say, we're off like a herd of turtles or a turtle hurdles. And now I don't know if he just came up with this. I've tried to look it up before, but I've never found out. And he was the kind of kooky dude, so kooky dude. So heard of turtles. This was your father or your grandfather. My grandfather, the grandfather. Grandfather. Okay, we're off like a herd of turtles. And did he mean anything more than we're leaving? No, it was just every time we got in the car to go somewhere, it was off like a herd of turtles or her to hurdles. You know what, Daniel, I've never heard the turd of hurdles part. I really like that. The other expression, we're off like a herd of turtles, a lot of people say it's one of several sort of fanciful sayings for taking off like that. Like we're off like a dirty shirt at the end of the day or we're often a cloud of whale dust and we're off like a herd of turtles. I mean, it's funny, isn't it for several reasons. I mean, first of all, I don't think herd is the right word for turtles. I don't know that I've ever seen I heard of turtles. I once tried to find the collective noun for a bunch of turtles. And some people say the word is bail BAL. Bale of turtles. What your dad does with playing with the words is really funny. It's what we call a spoonerism where you switch those letters around like you say the lord is a shoving leopard instead of the lord is a loving shepherd that kind of thing. And it goes back quite a ways until the 1930s at least ever since then. People are saying off like a herd of turtles, but Martha, you talked about off like a dirty shirt, but that implies speed where a herd of turtles is rather slow and disorganized. Really slow and disorganized. I wonder, I wonder if your grandfather was hoping people would hurry up and get in the car. You would think that, but we always had to, you know, we've had plans with him. We'd always have to set the time a half an hour earlier just for him. And so he would show up just on time. He was always tardy. He was more turtle like, huh? Yeah. Yeah, he would. Well, he sounds like a clever guy. Yeah, kooky dude. Oh yeah, he is. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you very much. Thanks for calling. Bye bye. Bye bye. Take care. Take off like a dirty shirt and call us 877-929-9673 or email us words at wayward radio dot org. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, this is Jeffrey Smith from newburn, North Carolina. Hi, Jeffrey. Welcome to the program. Hi, Jeffrey. Well, there's an expression I've often heard and I just kind of wondered what is so right about rain. You know? It just seemed like, you know, I suppose if you're in the desert, you like rain, but other than that, rain makes a lot of mud. It ruins a lot of picnics, and I was just wearing where it could have come from a wide clear, so pleased with rain. Unless I missed it like rain like a king monarch's reign or something. No, your original idea is the right one. It's rain. And so how would you hear it? What kind of situation would you be in? Were you here? Well, my father detection and he had an anecdote more than Carter had liver pills and everything was had to have a follow-up. Well, is this correct? Yep, that's right as rain. And it's like, so he's confirming that is correct. But he always had that twist. So there could be some twist that he was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, southern and I'm Dan Yankee from Connecticut and New Jersey. And I just wondered was it a colloquialism from Texas or is there some other reason for rain that I don't know about? No, it's pretty old right as rain goes back to at least the late 19th century and there were actually a lot of expressions like this like right as a book or write as nails or right as the bank, but this is the one that survived and I'm thinking that it's probably just because of the alliteration, you know that the two R's there right as rain. And also there may be the idea that sometimes when rain comes down it comes straight down in a straight line and it's just absolutely right, you know sort of a right angle to the earth. But we don't really know much more about it than that. It's a pretty straightforward term. Well, just trying to prepare to ask you this question, the thing started running around my mind like two rs. I never thought of it being perpendicular to the earth. I also was thinking maybe it had to do with people talk about when you have to clean rain, everything smells fresh and it's started or something. But I thought I would serve it up to you guys in the two knock it out of the park. Well, I don't know if that was fun. Jeffrey, thank you so much for your call. Call us again sometime, all right? Okay, thanks for taking my call. Bye bye. All right. Bye bye. Jeffrey mentioned having more of something than Carter has pills. Well, Carter was a brand name and Carter cell liver pills, and you can find out more information about that and thousands of other things on our website at wayward radio dot org. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant, Rachel Elizabeth weisler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Thank <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> <Silence> <Speech_Female> <Speech_Telephony_Male> you <Speech_Male> very much. Okay. Take <Speech_Male> care, Lou. Thank you. <Speech_Male> Thanks. <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> Bye bye. <Silence> Oh, <Speech_Female> what's the word of phrase <Speech_Female> that your parent used <Speech_Female> and you wonder <Speech_Female> if maybe anybody <Speech_Female> else in the world says <Speech_Female> it? Give us a <Speech_Female> call. 877-929-9673 <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> or <Speech_Female> send it to us in <Speech_Female> email the address <Speech_Female> is words that we <Speech_Female> would radio dot <Speech_Female> ORG. <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> Hello, you have <Speech_Male> a way with words. <Speech_Male> Hi there. This is <Speech_Telephony_Male> Paul's element. <Speech_Telephony_Male> Hi, Paul. Where are you calling <Speech_Male> from? Camden <Speech_Male> Maine. <Speech_Male> Camden Maine. <Speech_Male> Welcome to the show, Paul. <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> Well, <Speech_Male> I <Speech_Male> have <Speech_Telephony_Male> a new puppy. <Speech_Male> A beagle <Speech_Male> mix. <Speech_Male> And <Speech_Male> when I get them up in the <Speech_Telephony_Male> morning, he's all <Speech_Male> wags and <Speech_Male> kisses. <Speech_Male> And <Speech_Male> he was looking <Speech_Male> my face. <Speech_Male> Good mornings ago. <Speech_Male> And I said, <Speech_Male> you're getting your licks <Speech_Male> in. <Speech_Male> And then I paused for <Speech_Male> a minute and realized, <Speech_Male> oh, gee, <Speech_Male> that's <Speech_Male> like hitting <Speech_Telephony_Male> somebody. <Speech_Male> And that shouldn't <Speech_Male> have anything to do with <Speech_Male> my puppy's tongue. <Speech_Telephony_Male> <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> What <Speech_Male> is your cute little <Speech_Male> puppy's name? We <Speech_Male> have to tell us. <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> His name is <Speech_Male> max. <Speech_Male> Max. <Speech_Male> Getting <Speech_Male> your morning kisses your <Speech_Male> max. <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> <Speech_Female> Well, what <Speech_Female> we can tell you about <Speech_Female> lick Paul is that <Speech_Female> it's a really, <Speech_Female> really old word. <Speech_Female> It's been around for <Speech_Female> more than <Speech_Female> a thousand years. <Speech_Female> It goes back to old <Speech_Female> English lichen, <Speech_Female> which <Speech_Female> means <Speech_Female> the way you use <Speech_Female> the word to <Speech_Female> describe what your <Speech_Female> dog is doing. <Speech_Female> It means to pass <Speech_Female> the tongue over <Speech_Female> a surface. <Speech_Female> But this <Speech_Female> word lick gives <Speech_Female> us a great example <Speech_Female> of what <Speech_Female> we call polysemy. <Speech_Female> When a <Speech_Female> word has a lot <Speech_Female> of different meanings, <Speech_Female> this <Speech_Female> simple basic <Speech_Female> word that's <Speech_Female> had a lot of time <Speech_Female> to put out a lot <Speech_Female> of different shoots <Speech_Female> and branch out in <Speech_Female> different ways <Speech_Female> to <Speech_Female> indicate different things <Speech_Female> that are <Speech_Female> related <Speech_Female> to that <Speech_Female> fundamental root. <Speech_Female> And <Speech_Female> by the 16th <Speech_Female> century, <Speech_Female> the word <Speech_Female> lick also <Speech_Female> came to mean <Speech_Female> alongside <Speech_Female> that original meaning it <Speech_Female> came to mean <Speech_Female> to beat or strike <Speech_Female> or thrash, <Speech_Female> which is kind <Speech_Female> of an intensification <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> of <Speech_Female> that motion, I <Speech_Female> suppose, but <Speech_Female> also <Speech_Female> at that time <Speech_Female> there was the verb <Speech_Female> to lick <Speech_Female> up, which <Speech_Female> meant to defeat <Speech_Female> or vanquish <Speech_Female> and <Speech_Female> that was used in <Speech_Female> an early influential <Speech_Female> translation <Speech_Female> of the Bible, <Speech_Female> which talks <Speech_Female> about <Speech_Female> an army licking <Speech_Female> up the enemy <Speech_Female> the way that an ox <Speech_Female> would lick up the <Speech_Female> grass in a <Speech_Female> field. <Speech_Female> So <Speech_Female> there was that sense <Speech_Female> of it as well, but <Speech_Female> as you noted, it <Speech_Female> means a whole lot of different <Speech_Female> things like a small <Speech_Female> amount. You know, he hasn't <Speech_Female> done a lick of <Speech_Female> work. And <Speech_Female> I think <Speech_Female> most recently, <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> kids on <Speech_Female> TikTok have been <Speech_Female> posting video <Speech_Female> of things that they've <Speech_Female> licked, that <Speech_Female> is things that they've <Speech_Female> stolen. They show off <Speech_Female> their latest devious <Speech_Female> lick <Speech_Female> on TikTok. <Speech_Female> So <Speech_Female> it's kind of a <Speech_Female> Swiss Army knife of <Speech_Male> a word. <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> Interesting. <Speech_Male> Give us some scratches <Speech_Male> behind the ears for <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> well, thank you <Speech_Male> very much for <Speech_Telephony_Male> explaining that. <Speech_Male> I was <SpeakerChange> flummoxed. <Speech_Telephony_Male> Well, glad we could sniff <Speech_Female> it out for you. <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> Thanks very <Speech_Male> much. All right. <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Female> 877-929-9673. <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> <Speech_Female> <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Music_Female> <Music> <Speech_Music_Female> <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Female> Thanks to senior producer <Speech_Female> Stephanie Levine, <Speech_Female> <Advertisement> editor Tim <Speech_Female> <Advertisement> Felton, and <Speech_Female> <Advertisement> production assistant, <Speech_Female> Rachel Elizabeth <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> weissler. You can send <Speech_Male> us messages, subscribe <Speech_Music_Male>
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"As I was thinking about this. It's like, what would spit nickels, a slot machine, but that doesn't seem like you'd be mad. No, it's just one of a variety of these things that you spit. You're so angry that, well, there's just the expression I'm so angry I could spit or I could spit. Yeah, people who would say I could spit just meaning they're angry or I could spit tax, I could spit nails, I could spit rust, I could chew nails. I could spit rivets. I could spit blood. Or I could really ten feet. A lot of these. Who spits when they're angry? Well, camels may be camels. Yeah. Well, I don't know if they're angry, but they definitely spit. And then I'm going to Australia if they spit chips. If they're thirsty. Chips if they're Thursday. I'm so thirsty, I can spit chips. Some people thirsty. They spit cotton. But anyway, the origin of this is murky, but it's really just about you being so angry that you do something extraordinary that you're out of your head. You're behaving unusually. When we are angry, we don't act ourselves. That is true. That's true. My mom chose to spit Nichols. And the other one she used to say if we were in the car on a motorcycle with speed past this, she'd say, he's going to go head over ten cups. So I have no idea why he would go head over tin cups. Martha, that's one of a set, isn't it? Head over heels, of course. But to rump over tea kettle or head over tea cups and ass over elbow or head over appetites or head over apple cart. All different variety of things. And these go back well into the 1800s. And they're all polite ways of saying that you have fell down and you're discombobulated and probably you felt so so far that your rear end went over your front end. Oh, okay. Kind of cartoon style. It's cartoon style. Maybe even a little bit like what they're today on the Internet they call this the full scorpion. The full scorpion is where you fall down face first and your back legs go up over your head, kind of like a scorpion's tail, reaching for a sting. Landing. Wow. Yeah. So they're both pretty straightforward. They are. And yeah, now that you're saying them, it's like, oh, wait. Yeah, it sounds like your mom had a lot of expressions, juice. She did. And her name was Mary Martha. So I always remember taken by that name. So, yeah. I'll say it again. You can't have too many Martha's. Thanks for calling. I really appreciate it. Well, I really love you too. Thank you again for taking my call. All right. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Have no idea. Absolutely, Marianne. And we've heard from other listeners about this too. We've had questions from Andy and Lebanon, Indiana, Sally and sturgeon bay, Wisconsin, ray and Wisconsin, and Jim and maryville Tennessee as well, and probably others that I'm forgetting. This kind of buck three 80 falls in what we might call indefinite hyperbolic numerals. These are terms used for approximate small dollar amounts. And there are a lot of variations on this one. Dollar three 80, buck one 80, buck two 80, about three 80, buck three 90, about two 98, buck two 95, and these are all exactly what you said. You had it exactly right. They're all about kind of evading the real number. Sometimes because you're embarrassed that it was too high. Sometimes because you're embarrassed so low. Sometimes just to dismiss the thing as being important, which sounds like what your father sometimes did as well. It's not your business to know. Yeah, I was trying to do the math there and think, well, how many pennies would that be? But it makes sense of it. And you know, it just didn't make any sense to us. We're just like a buck three 80. Okay, dad. Sure. Thanks for playing. It's not necessarily just that particular amount, whatever that amount is. I mean, there's also nickel 95, for example. 77. Yeah. Yeah, these are all made up numbers. None of these numbers are real. They're all completely invented. Whoever says it, they don't mean it. Yeah, he was having fun. Oh, he did. And he had a bunch of us have fun with, so that's really fun to hear that there's a lot of different ways to do it. But yeah, we always knew just stop asking. You're not getting anywhere. Well, I'd imagine a man with 8 kids gets tired of questions. So he probably had a lot of adventure techniques. Yes he did. He did indeed. Well, thank you so much. That's really fun to hear and it just will be a delight for my family to hear about it too. So thank you. It's a delight to have you share your memories. We really appreciate it. Thank you all. Bye bye. Bye bye. Memories and language go hand in hand. Call us with your language questions. Tell us about your memories, 877-929-9673, words at wayward radio dot org or on Twitter at WA ORD. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weisler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"You called with this question. I gotta say, Robin, you sound like you've made Martha's day. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Our pleasure. You call us again sometime, all right? Absolutely. Absolutely. You take care of yourself now, right? Be well. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thanks, Robin. Bye bye. If there's another language that you speak where they use a specific number to mean an indeterminate amount, let us know 877-929-9673 are tell us about it in email words at wayward radio dot org or talk to us on Twitter at wray. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weisler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"We got an intriguing voicemail from will hasseltine, who was telling us about the first pep rally he ever attended. It was when he was in kindergarten, and he remembers his teacher getting the kids ready by saying, we're going to a pepper alley, or at least that's what he told his mom later that day that we all went to a pepper alley, and his mom, of course, thought that was really, really funny, that little misunderstanding. But he swears that that's what his teacher said, we're going to a pepper alley, and we'll want to know, is there such a thing? And of course, that's what I thought was an adorable childhood misunderstanding, but the truth is there is such a thing as pepper alley. But it's not the same thing as a pep rally, which you would do at school where everyone gathers to cheer on the team that's going to fight in the big game against their dreaded opponents. That's right. But if you look in slang dictionaries, you'll see that pepper alley is actually a state of being beaten up. It comes from boxing slang, where the verb to pepper, of course, means to hit somebody repeatedly. You pepper them with punches, but it's also a pun on a place in South London called pepper alley, where apparently a lot of this went on. So will is still convinced all these years that he heard correctly as a kindergartner. I mean, maybe his teacher was from Britain or something. But I suspect it's just a mishearing, but it's kind of adorable that he's still hanging on to the belief that he heard correctly. Absolutely. Will there's probably a really good chance that you misheard. But, you know, keep believing brother. Grant and I love to hear about those childhood misunderstandings, and you can share yours by calling us 877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, my name is Amelia. And I'm calling from Arlington, Virginia. Welcome to the show. Hey, Amelia. Thank you. I have something that my wife said recently that I was wondering if you could help me out with. Well, yes, please. She and I have been married for a number of years now are both in our mid 30s and we're both from the Midwest. She's from Iowa and I'm from Ohio. Everyone she'll say something that I've never heard before never heard anyone else say before. So I get to figure out is it an Ohio thing or just something her family says or something she's made up herself. Most recently, she said she was talking about our neighbor who was wearing these sweatpants that had holes all the way through them and she said, oh wow, he's really getting the goodie out of that pair of pants. And I realized, yeah. See, I could tell that you met, she's getting the most out of them. She's like, get the goodie out of it. And I thought, you know, it kind of sounds like a phrase that people say, but then I realized I thought more about it. I don't know anyone else who says that. And her mom was in town recently, and she said it, and I asked her about it, she didn't know where it came from. And her sister also says it. So it's definitely in their family, but nobody knows where it came from and I tried looking it up online and there really isn't much out there about this phrase. So I was curious if you guys had any insight onto it. Well, I think that that's probably pretty straightforward is probably related to the idea of a goodie being the edible kernel of a nut, particularly Hickory nuts and walnuts. Since the late 18th century or so, the term goody has been used to mean something tasty or desirable, you know, like candy or even hard to get at crab meat, you know, get the goody out of a crab shell. Let's see. It's also been used for the yolk of an egg, so the good part, I guess, of an egg. And the flesh of an orange sometimes. Oh wow. Yeah. So all those words are kind of the same. They come from the same place, like the middle of something. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah, the middle, and also just the good part. You know, like a goody bag has goodies in it, or a goody picker. I love that term, goody picker. It's a pointed instrument for digging the meat out of a nut. Is it regional at all? All over. Goody is kind of scattered throughout much of the United States. The south and a little bit in the Midwest. So I'm not surprised that your wife picked that up there. That's interesting about the nut because her mother, my mother in law, grew up on a farm and her dad had a bunch of black walnut trees and would like harvest them and their stories about her the basement being full of walnuts. So I wonder if they know that we had a walnut tree, whatever house is, I know that feeling. Yeah. They are all about scarred about it. I think this is how much it's stained on. Oh, that's really interesting. Well, I'll pass it along to them. I think they'll be interested to hear. All right. Amelia, thank you for helping us get the goodie out of this question. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much. Thanks a lot. Best of your wife. Thanks. Bye. Bye bye. When you marry into a family, you don't just marry your spouse. You marry their language. And there's a lot that you might not understand. Martha and I can help you sort that out. 877-929-9673, or talk to us on Twitter at W ay WO RD. Our team includes senior producer Stephanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felton, production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler, 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 dot 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 rotting Bruce rogo, Rick sidon worm and Betty Willis. Thanks for listening. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett until next time, goodbye. Bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Saying she didn't know what to do with it. But there was some talk of she's supposed to bring it back next year. And so what do we do with this thing? That's really the Stanley Cup you got there. So Stanley rubber cup. Right. Stick it on the wall. And Martha, how far back does this go? I think we both found those 1941 users. Right. No earlier than that. We just simply can't find it any earlier than that. I guess we should say, congratulations to your friend for their support. Absolutely. I don't know how you keep an outhouse quote unquote clean, but you know, I was so. But these days, it does tend to be associated with camps, summer camps, scouting camps, that sort of thing. Sleep away camps. Okay. All right, Karen, well, thank you so much for the question. Take care now, Karen. Oh, thank you. Thank you. All right. Bye bye. Well, late your linguistic traps for me and Martha, we'd love to fall into them 877-929-9673 are put your devious schemes in email words at wayward radio dot org or try them out on Twitter at. Grant is sour gherkin zeit. It's sour pickled day. Yes, sour pickle time. That's it. What does that mean? Is this the day when we air our grievances? Is this the main profession? Well, no, pickle time in German is a period when there's very little economic or political or cultural activity, usually during the summer months, you know, sort of that lull during the summer when when especially in Germany, businesses close schools out, they get all that vacation over there. And they refer to that as saura gorkin zeit, of which means pickled cucumber time. Probably because in late 18th century Berlin, there was a pickle harvest about that time and that's when people were canning pickles. Okay. Nothing else to do. Makes a lot of sense. It reminds me of summers in New York. August, the New York was always a lovely time because it felt like half the city was the way. But I'm like Paris, New York doesn't really close in August, but it does empty out. So you can just go about your business and just everything was very unpopulated. You could get a seat at your favorite restaurant and not worry about getting tickets to a great movie and the parks would be lovely and uncrowded. It was just a really good time. The hottest heck. Yeah, I was gonna say you sweat a lot, right? Yeah. 877-929-9673. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Everything in there that's conceivable, you know? Right, okay, because I've only ever heard that and then once I was watching, you know, English show, a British TV show recently. And they said that so and so thought he was all that and the plate of witch crackers. Yeah. Yeah, there are other people have played around with it, a plate of fries, a plate of chips, a plate of green beans, a plate of biscuits and gravy. They've done a variety of different things, but usually all that in a bag of chips is the more common. But yeah, it comes from black American English and like a lot of terms left the speech of black Americans and entered the mainstream to the usual channels of popular culture and it's a little dated now just so you know. And that used by the time. Of coming back around to some who knows. Maybe much younger people start saying it. Thanks to you. Maybe we're transcending right now. As we speak. Maybe. Maybe not. We are all that in a jumbo bag of chips. Thank you so much. I was very hopeful. All right, take care. All right, bye bye. Thanks for calling. Bye bye. Well, if you're slang is new, or you're slaying his old, we'd love to talk about it 877-929-9673. Our team includes senior producer Stephanie Levine, engineer and editor Tim Felton, production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler, 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 dot 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 rotting Bruce rogo, Rick sidon worm and Betty Willis. Thanks for listening. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm grant Barrett until next time, goodbye. Bye..
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"What book is it? And he said, we'll make it a mystery like that chapter out of it. He was like, his name's Lyman, and we would always refer to him as Lima ism, because he's full of catchy little phrases and such. That's marvelous. I love it. Making a Whipple for reduces poke or a hoot nanny for a sky wampus or a Tim paddle to tie up the moon. I mean, there's so many of these. And I hope we've helped get to the bottom of this mystery for you. You have. Thank you. I can't wait to share it with my dad. Take care now. Hi to Lyman. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. We'll share your family's phrases with us, 877-929-9673 are send them to us in email. That address is words at wayward radio dot ORG. Hello, you have a way with words. Yeah, hello. My name is Gerald. I am in gasby point Rhode Island. Welcome to the show. What's up? I have a question about the word dashboard. I think I can parse out where the board part comes from, but the dash part. I'm baffled by. So you're thinking about the dashboard on a car or a vehicle? Yeah. Yeah, and you're exactly right that dash is the key part of that word. In the 1300s, dash meant to strike suddenly and violently, but over time it also came to have the meaning of to sprinkle or to splatter. So if, say, you ran through a driving rain to get to my house, Gerald, and you showed up at my door, I might say, you know, come on in, your clothes are dashed with mud. And that's the kind of dash that we're talking about here because back in the days of horse drawn carriages, the term dashboard was applied to this panel of wood or leather that went in front of the driver. It was set on the carriage in front of the driver and passengers to keep them from being dashed by water or mud or snow. The term applied to that panel was then applied later to the panel that protected the occupants of horseless carriages from the heat of the oil and the engine. And then over time we kept adding things to it, dials and other options. So it's really this vestige of the old days when you had to protect yourself against mud and water and snow. Nice. Well, that's a great explanation. I kind of expected something like that. But oh, did you? Didn't know. What brought it to mind? Why were you thinking about dashboards? Well, it wasn't, it wasn't actually in reference to a vehicle at the time. I was using a dashboard to manage something on the social media account. Yeah. That's where I wanted to go with this, exactly. It is very interesting that it's now made this third jump into the computing world where it's a screen or interface that shows us statistics or charts or analyses of our underlying data in a human readable format, right? Yes. And who knows? Maybe there'll be a fourth act who can say when we get these neural implants. We'll have middays, maybe. Well, Gerald, thanks for the call, really appreciate it, take care now. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Is there a word or phrase that's puzzled you? Call us about it 877-929-9673 or send it to us in email that address is words at wayward radio dot org. And if you just can't wait, hit us up on Twitter. We're at wayward. Hi there, you have a way with words. Hi. This is Laura, calling from Dallas. Hey, Laura, welcome to the show. What can we do for you? Well, thank you so much. I'm really excited. I have a question about a phrase that I've been hearing a lot. My parents say it and my mom said, my grandma said it as well. And it is another country heard from. And what context would you hear this in? Well, I have a ten month old daughter. And so she'll be kind of playing quietly and all of a sudden she'll start babbling or talking and my mom will say, oh, another country heard from. Where my same with my little baby cousin, he'll be fast asleep and all of a sudden he's awake and talking and this, okay, another country has from. So it's when somebody just kind of somebody blurts something out. They were unexpectedly speaking and you hadn't expected them to put in any input at all. Exactly, yes. It almost is like their way of acknowledging the baby. It's usually towards the babies, but like that they have joined the conversation and it's kind of like a, it seems like a welcome. Yeah, okay. Have you ever heard them say it in a dismissing way to an adult? Like somebody gives an unwanted opinion or gives an opinion where they weren't asked for an opinion? Not really dismissing, but more of my younger sister if we're all here together and maybe she sleeps later than everyone else. And then she will slowly come down the stairs after everyone is already, you know, talking and having breakfast, then she might get, oh, another country heard from. You finally decided to join us. Yeah, maybe that is a good use. I like that one. She's all where's the coffee? You'll sometimes also hear it if somebody breaks wind or burps. Sometimes you'll hear somebody say that in response to that. But you'll also hear another county heard from without the. And that actually was the original form going back to 1868. And so it's got a long history. Now, I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff here at you. So bear with me, okay? Okay. The expression had a burst of popularity in the 1876 presidential election. Now this was when Samuel J tilden was against Rutherford B Hayes and they had this campaign and even the election tally after all the votes were cast was so close that the ballot recount when it was reordered was like a county by county thing. And some of the far flung counties were very slow to report. So when the newspapers reported on the ballot slowly coming in, they would headline these little blurbs, another county heard from with the results from that county. So we're going to keep up. This was in the newspapers at the time. However, even though a lot of books will tell you that this expression comes from that election, it does not come from that election, although the election may have firmly permanently put it into the lexicon because that expression existed before that election. It appeared before that election in ads and editorials, letters, headlines, and so forth. And it always is like you've used it. It's always like, okay, here's an opinion. Here's somebody spoke up that we weren't expecting to hear from, or sometimes it's kind of dismissively used. That's why I asked about that. Here's something we don't care about with a thing that they insisted on saying. In newspapers, it's like letters to the editors. Here's somebody with an off the wall opinion that we decided to print just so we can make fun of them. That sort of thing. And they'll title it another country heard from. Sorry, another county heard from. But somewhere around 1900 or so, it starts to switch to another country heard from. I don't know why, but my theory is and Martha, I don't know what you think about this, but my theory is, this is when the United States start to be a little more worldly. And we started to get more international news in our newspapers. And another county heard from started to disappear from popular speech and you just don't find it that much anymore. And you also will see variants like another city heard from or another ward heard from. Award is a voting district in the city. Anyway, that's what we know. So 1868. Every time this comes up, Martha and I both furiously look at all the old databases to see if there's anything new and we can create it. We can never find it earlier than 1868. I look desperately, but I can never find any earlier than that. Interesting. Thank you so much. That's great. Yeah. We were happy to hear from your country. So thank you for calling. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. Take care now. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye bye. And we would be happy to hear from your county or country to 877-929-9673. That number is toll free in the U.S. and Canada. And if you're anywhere else in the world, you can email us words that wayward radio dot org. We will try to get people on from anywhere in the world, believe it or not. And you can talk to us on Twitter at ORD. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words and wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye..
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Yeah, and she made a shirt for it too. Yeah. Yeah, you have to spell cuppers, see you PPA, but had a tonic cup of cappuccino, ta-da. And there's a wonderful segment where she and one of her music students play pilot, music passages from Bach, which require that you play a passage forward and backward at the same time in order for it to be what the composer intended. And it's quite lovely. Both of them have these burping bed posts as they're called. And it's really quite brilliant. They also have a great shot of her playing the oboe at the spiral J in the great Salt Lake, which is just outstanding. Just wonderful stuff. 877-929-9673. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radio dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye..
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Don't want to be licking your computer screen though. No. I'm going to lick your Windows 10 installation. And then there's an expression that Martha brought up on the show once, which on one meaning it's Mexican Spanish slang. And one meaning it means to kind of scope out good-looking people in its itar un taco de ojo to throw a taco of the eye, but in another meaning it can mean to look but not by. Of course, window shopping itself in English can also mean to kind of cast admiring glance at all. The good-looking people around you without any intention of really going after them are asking them for dates or anything. But Martha, we have to mention the Canadian one. That's maybe maybe we can just borrow that one. What do you think? Oh, that's a fun one, yeah, I like that one. Twain? Tracking. That's Newfoundland, right? Yeah, yeah, you hear it mostly in Newfoundland. Let's go Twain. It's a window shopping dates back about a hundred years, probably from British dialect term, which really meant to be indecisive or something along those lines. But for some reason, just kind of landed a Newfoundland and stayed there. So why don't we sandy? Why don't we just coin a word right now and we're going to borrow that Newfoundland term and say that if your window shopping on the Internet, you are tracking? Okay, that sounds great. It works. No? Yeah, instead of computer hacks, you have computer tweaks. I like it. Okay, sounds great. Do you have a better idea? Yeah. She sounds suspicious. Yeah, it's just sounds like she's ready to put us on a home, Martha. Well, you know, I will definitely tell her about family. What do you say though, sandy, if you're shopping and you're like, you want to tell something in your family that you were looking for baby clothes and you mean online? How would you just casually throw this sentence out there? I'd probably use browse to be drowsy online. I think I might just say shop. I don't know. I like wacky. I like twerking. I do too. Oh, sandy, thank you for the call. I know we'll get a lot of response. We'll ask everyone to send their suggestions for a new word for shopping on the Internet, all right? Okay, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. You guys have a great day. Bye bye. Thanks, sandy. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor Tim Felton, and production assistant Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673, or email us, words at wayward radios dot 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. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye..
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Welcome. What can we do for you? I'm curious to know about a word that my father always used and then my sister reminded me also my mother used and that's what you call the end piece of the loaf of bread. We always refer to it as the couple. I never really thought much about it. It wasn't until I was older and married and somehow that came up and said, oh, well, you don't need the Cabo and he's like, what? Are you talking about? And he's like, oh, you mean the heel of the bread? I never heard that word, so. Wow, couple. I have to confess, I've never heard that used for the end of a loaf of bread. There are lots and lots and lots of terms. Have you heard that one grant? No, so that's Sue that's cuby LE. I have so that's the way it is. It's nothing that I had spelled. We didn't have that as a spelling word in class or anything. No, that's a new one on me, but lots of people have family words for that. Absolutely. For the end of the loaf, the last piece. The heel is the usual word. Correct. A lot of them have to do with parts of the body, like grant mentioned the heel. Some people call it the bread, but the nose. Oh. Right. Elbow. Yeah, in Spanish, the word is co though, which means elbow. There are a lot of family words as grant mentioned like bunts and tampi and then there was that come from people's different heritages like skulk, which comes from Norwegian for the end of the loaf of bread. So you have terms like buns and skirt and crunch and trona and tummy and canoes. One of my favorites is from Scotland. In Scotland, some people call it the outsider or the outsiders. Oh, well, maybe it's like, you know, everybody has their own name for when they were a kid, what their bottle was or their blankie, you know? None of you. Yeah. Yeah, that may have been what happened in your family. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah, we're just not we're just not coming up with anything that sounds like couple. But you can have it and you can be yours and you can love it. Thank you. And I deleted. Thank you for calling. You welcome, thank you. All right. Bye bye. Bye. Bye. What do you call the end of a loaf of bread? That one piece is it the butt, the heels, something else. Let us know. 877-929-9673 or words at wayward radio dot org. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor, Tim Felton, and production assistant, Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673 or email us, words at wayward radio dot org. A way with words is an independent production of wayward ink a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett, until next time, goodbye. Bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Would use it is to compare to things, so for example, if you asked me to cook a Thanksgiving dinner and I'm a terrible cook, then I would say, oh, I can't even cook for myself. Let alone cook Thanksgiving for ten people. So I would compare what you're asking with something that's even less than that. And say, I can't even do this. So forget about this other thing. And I would put the more extreme thing at the end. So that's how I always heard it used. And that's what makes sense to me. But I feel like lately in the last probably two or three years, I've been hearing a lot of people using it the other way around. Where they'll put this thing in question at the beginning and then the lesser thing at the end. So they'll say, oh, I can't cook Thanksgiving let alone cook for myself. To me, this just sounds so wrong. This is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I could just feel totally backwards. I'm hoping that you can just settle this for me officially. Yes, we can provide you some relief. Doctor Martha, we can help her, right? Yeah, so we have some great magazines while you're waiting. Yeah, I think you're really nailed it exactly right, traditionally, the harder things should come last. In your version, you said that I can't do X, which is an easy thing. And let alone Y, which is a harder thing. And that's pretty much how it has been and ought to be. And you're right. People do often put the difficult thing first. They say I can't even Z let alone X but what they should be saying is not even X so kind of what they're mixing here is these little idiomatic expressions all which are used to provide this range of possibilities of what they are are not capable of doing. And let alone, let's admit it is kind of a weird expression, right? Alone is not. It's idiomatic. It's hard to break down. What is alone mean? It's not really a modern phrase at all, right? So it's kind of opaque when you hear it being used. It's pretty easy to misunderstand it. Yeah. Right. True. That's true. But they're different phrases like that. It's the same kind of construction to say nothing of never mind or much less. Yeah. Yeah. And all of these can be used in the same way or they can be misused in the same way. So it's kind of an understand when it was like particularly with let alone, especially with let alone. Because let alone is just this odd little bird. If you saw this and you had your camera, you would take a picture of it because it would be the strange all the little Brown birds and this brightly colored one, you know? Look at this little bit alone over here. Yeah, look at this little let alone and you'd be showing to all your bird or friends. So I think you really nailed it. And I think it's a forgivable mistake, but it is an error. You're not the only person who's noticed this. Linguists have been researching complementary alternation discourse constructions. That's what they're called. Yeah. And we'll link to some very highfalutin academic papers when we post this to the website. They're pretty heady stuff. Yeah. But when I said there were magazines in our waiting room, these are not those. No pictures. These are the things we give you when you haven't been following the diet. We give you. Taking the pills like we recommend. I would expect no less. But we'll link to anyway because you might find some benefit. So just to be clear, since we said so much, let's make sure we talk about this one last time. It should be, I can't even toast bread, let alone cook Thanksgiving for ten people. So it's the easy thing first and the hard thing second. Yeah. Right. Perfect. Well, Stacey, thank you so much for calling. I'm glad you feel better. Thank you. Thank you for the matter soon. Come and see us in 6 weeks. We'll take the cast off. Thank you. Happy holidays to you guys. Bye bye. Bye bye. Well, if there's a word a phrase you're wondering about, give us a call. 877-929-9673 or send it to us in email, the addresses words that wayward radio dot ORG. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, grant Martha. This is Jonah calling from Baltimore, Maryland. Hi, Jonah. Hey, Jonah. I'm a private music teacher. And as one of my ten year olds was packing up after our lesson, we somehow got to chatting about states we visited. So I asked him if he knew his state capitals. And he's a really confident kid. So he emphatically said, of course I do. So I said, okay, so do you know that capital of Maryland? And without missing a beat, he shouted MD, which I lasted. I laughed at, I said, no, I mean, the capital city. And then he just looked at me confused and went, oh no, I don't know those. That's so cute. So he used the initials and capital letters. Yeah, he used the capital letters. And you know, I guess it's an honest mistake. And when it comes to different uses of the capital, the word capital ending AL, I guess he was justified in answering the question that way. He just chose a different sense of the homonym. But then I got to wondering about the two different spellings of capital ending AL and OL. Which there are obviously two related words, but with divergence spellings. And specifically, I was wondering if you could clarify how we ended up with those two words and why when we heard a capital city, it's not spelled with an O's, since that's where the capital building is situated. Right, exactly. Yeah, you've zeroed in on the big difference that confuses a lot of people because as you suggested you only use the O for the capitol building, whether it's the U.S. capitol building, where Congress meets in Washington or in your case, the state House in Annapolis. That's the capitol, where the legislators meet. But it's in the capital city AL. And a lot of people have trouble remembering which is which, but the trick I use is either to picture the round dome of the capitol, which sort of looks like an O, or you can think about the letter O standing for only one that one instance of when you use the OL in the case of the building and all the other uses of capital are AL. And you're right that there may be a connection between the two, the AL capital, which we use for a lot more ideas like the main thing or a capital letter, it goes back to the Latin kaput, which means pertaining to the head. And so you get all kinds of meanings coming out of that kind of capital, like great or capital in money, as a matter of fact, like venture capital. That's originally from Latin parr's capitalis, the first part of a loan that's not the interest. And then the meaning expanded. The OL version capital goes back to Ancient Rome, where the great temple of Jupiter, which was this magnificent temple in Rome was located on the capitoline hill and there's a story in antiquity that is probably apocryphal about them starting to dig the foundation for this temple and they found a head when they were digging, and it was belonging. To somebody named Talia's or something like that. But that's probably just an etymological myth. But basically, they go back to the capitoline hill, which was with an O and then caput meaning head for all those other terms. Okay. So Jonah, I'm going to repeat that story from your student. I think that's hilarious. That was a great one. Yeah. Thank you for the call. A good luck with the students. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. All right, take care. Thanks, Jonah. All right. Bye bye. 877-929-9673. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor, Tim Felton, and production assistant, Rachel Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673 or email us, words at wayward radio dot ORG. Away with words is an independent production of wayward ink, a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye bye..
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"Another hiking term I came across in the book journeys north by Barney scout man is hiker midnight, any guess what hiker midnight is? Hi care, midnight. Wow. I don't know. I'm kind of thinking about halfway between when you put up your tent and when you get up, which isn't necessarily the middle of the night since you often set up your tent well before dusk and you often get up well before dawn. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Barney says it's 9 p.m.. You've hiked 20 miles or 30 miles and midnight comes at 9 p.m.. You are just out. Oh yeah, none of this romantic sitting around the fire to the early hours because you're just finished. You're beat. Yeah, hiker midnight. 8 7 7 9 9 9 6 7 three. Thanks to senior producer Stephanie Levine, editor, Tim Felton, and production assistant, Rachel, Elizabeth weissler. You can send us messages, subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot org. Our toll free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673 or email us, words at wayward radio dot org. A way with words is an independent production of wayward ink a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Many thanks to wayward board member and our friend Bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. Bye.
A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"rachel elizabeth" Discussed on A Way with Words: language, linguistics, and callers from all over
"So this robin this is just music to my ears to hear your version. And you know both fifty seven and as you say fifty seven and forty seven have been around for close to one hundred years. They have a long history and often when you hear levin now it's in our nbc or hip hop there's that usher song burn. That goes been you know. you know. it's got that line in there you've been gone for too long. It's been fifty days on teen hours. There's a fancy term for these kinds of words you want to know what it is. What is it indefinite hyperbolic numerals. Okay that makes sense that actually make sense because as you suggested It's a large number not exactly in a particular amount You know it's a really big number. So the the fancy term for these words is indefinite hyperbolic numerals. What's really interesting. Is that forty levin. I think was the earlier one in fifty levin is a variant of that but forty eleven was originally in the northeast and it seems to have migrated down some into the south. Because that's that's where. I hear it more often in so I'm very interested to hear that That you heard fifty levin up in chicago. There's some fascinating work. That's been done on these kinds of numbers by a linguistic anthropologist named stephen and malice who's at wayne state university in detroit and he's done a lot of work on words like fifty seven forty seven and other indefinite hyperbolic numerals like teen and empty. The most common. One of all of these is zillion. And he's done some fascinating research. That shows that zillion was almost exclusively used. The african american community before world war. Two there was about three quarters of the instances. Of the words zillion in print are in african american newspapers magazines and it was used by a lot of this central figures of the harlem renaissance. And it was only later that this term zillion migrated into more general usage. How cool is that. It's not as awesome. So i'm just fifty levin kinds of happy that you called with this question i gotta say rather than you sound like. You've made martha's day. Thank you take it again sometime all right absolutely absolutely you take care of yourself right be well bye bye. Thanks robin five. I if there's another language that you speak where. They use a specific number to mean an indeterminate amount. Let us know. Eight seven seven nine hundred nine nine. Six seven three are tell us about an email words at wavered radio dot org or on twitter at w. a. y. w. o. r. d. thanks to senior producer. Stephanie levin editor. Tim felton and production assistant. Rachel elizabeth wessler. You can send us messages. Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter and catch up on hundreds of past episodes at wayward radio dot. Org our toll. Free line is always open in the us and canada. Eight seven seven nine two nine nine six seven three or email us words at wayward radio dot. Org a way with words is an independent production of labored inc a nonprofit supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language many thanks to wayward board member and our friend bruce rogo for his help and expertise. Thanks for listening. I'm grant ferret. And i'm martha barnett until next time goodbye by..