A combination of some podcast feeds that may be of interest to technical writers like myself (Alistair Christie - www.itauthor.com). The feed was created using Yahoo Pipes. It mashes together the 15 most recent posts from the following feeds: Tech Writer Voices (http://feeds.feedburner.com/techwritervoices), Grammar Girl (http://www.qdnow.com/grammar.xml), A Way With Words (http://feeds.waywordradio.org/awwwpodcast) The ITauthor Podcast (http://feeds.feedburner.com/itauthor). http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=vpcC7WPC3RGb6iEApgt1Yg Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:31:34 +0000 http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/Ue-RMrCPo-Q/burn-bag-28-september-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": Slang from the 19th century. The slang coming out of Victorian mouths was more colorful than you might think. A 1909 collection of contemporary slang records clever terms for everything from a bald head to the act of sidling through a crowd. Plus, how to remember the difference between CAV-al-ry and CAL-va-ry. And: what's the best way to improve how introverts are perceived in our society? For starters, don't bother asking for help from dictionary editors. Also, collieshangles, knowledge box, nanty narking, biz bag, burn bag, yuppies, and amberbivalence.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Mind the grease is a handy phrase to use when you're trying to sidle through a crowd. It's found in 1909 volume of English slang called Passing English of the Victorian Era. Speaking of greasy, in those days something extravagant might be described as butter upon bacon.<br /><br />If you're telling a story involving someone with an accent, and while relaying what so-and-so said, you imitate that person's accent, is that cool? If your retelling starts to sound offensive or gets in the way of good communication, best to try paraphrasing rather than performing.<br /><br />Collieshangles is an old Scottish term for a quarrel, possibly deriving from the notion of two collie dogs fighting.<br /><br />We've previously discussed the term going commando, meaning "dressed without underwear." It first appears in print in 1974, but likely goes back further than that. The scene in a 1996 episode of Friends, wherein Joey goes commando in Chandler's clothes, likely popularized the saying.<br /><br />A Chicago-area listener suggests that approaching to a yellow traffic light and deciding whether or not to go for it might be described as amberbivalence. It's somewhat like that decision you face when coming toward what you know is a stale green light—do you gun it or brake it?<br /><br />Quiz Guy John Chaneski wasn't savvy enough way back when to snag an email address like john@aol.com, but he was clever enough to come up with a game about apt email addresses that serve as a pun on the word at. For example, a prescient lawyer might have claimed attorney@law.com.<br /><br />What's the difference between cavalry and calvary? The first of these two refers to the group of soldiers on horseback, and is a linguistic relative of such "horsey" words as caballero, the Spanish horse-riding gentleman, and cavalcade, originally a "parade of horses." The word calvary, on the other hand, derives from the Latin calvaria, "skull," and refers to the hill where Jesus was crucified, known in Aramaic as Golgotha, or "place of the skull." <br /><br />Knowledge box is an old slang term for noggin; one 1755  describes someone who "almost cracked his knowledge box."<br /><br />An introvert in Baltimore, Maryland, is unhappy with an online definition of introvert, and is speaking up about wanting it changed. The definition describes an introvert as someone preoccupied with their own thoughts and feelings—such as a selfish person, or a narcissist. The problem is, Google's definitions come from another dictionary, and dictionary definitions themselves come from perceived popular usage. So the way to change a definition isn't to petition lexicographers, but to change the popular understanding of a term.<br /><br />What's the female equivalent of a man cave? Some people are promoting the term she shed. <br /><br />Ann Patchett, the author of This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, among other books, has some great advice about writing. She says the key is to practice writing several hours a day for the sheer joy of getting better, and find the thing that you alone can say.<br /><br />The term biz bag, meaning a bag to stuff your discarded items in, comes from an old commercial for Biz stain-removing detergent.<br /><br />If you're looking for a little nanty narking, try going back to the 19th century and having a great time, because that's a jaunty term the British used for it back then.<br /><br />Betamax players and hair metal bands may be trapped in the 1980's, but the term yuppie, meaning "young urban professional," is alive and well. Dink, meaning dual income, no kids, is also worth throwing around in a marketing presentation.<br /><br />In the world of covert secret agents, a burn bag is the go-to receptacle for important papers you'd like to have burned rather than intercepted by the enemy.<br /><br />A listener from Santa Monica, California, says he's going to mow something down, as in, he's going to eat a huge amount of food really fast. But when he writes it, he spells mow as mau, and pronounces it to rhyme with cow. Ever heard of this? <br /><br />A fly-rink, in 19th-century slang, is a bald head—perfect for flies to skate around on!<br /><br />This episode is hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/Ue-RMrCPo-Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> bc0034049531166d6d7351aa032043a8 Mon, 28 Sep 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_483.mp3 Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/GglfTFN7HkA/lord-love-a-duck-rebroadcast-21-september-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": Someone should write a love letter to a new book called "Letters of Note." It's a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous cartoonists, a scientist's poignant love letter to his late wife. Then there's correspondence in the digital age: Grant and Martha talk about how to emphasize something in an email, and when it helps to use emoticons. Also, the fabric called blue jean is much, much older than you might think. Plus, Lord love a duck, man in the moon, bacon and eggs vs. eggs and bacon, white-liver widows, and a vinegar-and-ketchup sauce called julep.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Letters of Note, a book based on the website of the same name, is a collection of funny, moving, and insightful letters from both famous people and nobodies.<br /><br />Which comes first in this favorite breakfast combo: bacon and eggs, or eggs and bacon? Neither are totally idiomatic, but bacon and eggs is most common.<br /><br />Emphasizing one word over another, especially in written correspondence, makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. And if all caps or italics don't do the trick in an email, consider using an emoticon.<br /><br />Since Adobe released the photo-editing program Photoshop in 1988, to photoshop has become a common verb, which got shortened to just shop. Now people are using the hashtag lazyshop, where you just describe the changes you would have made to a photo if you'd actually had the energy to photoshop it.<br /><br />Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a name game for famous folks who could use a different surname because of their trade.<br /><br />The term white-livered, like lily-livered, can describe someone timid.  But an old folk tradition, once common in the South, associates having a white liver or white spots on one's liver with an insatiable sexual appetite.  The terms white-livered widow, or white- livered widder refers to a woman who has a series of husbands who died shortly after they married, presumably because she simply wore them out physically.<br /><br />The fabric called denim originated in the town of Nimes, France, hence the name. The fabric known as jean, originally from Genoa, Italy was popular long before Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis and teamed up in 1873 to make durable work trousers using jean and duck cloth.  <br /><br />In 1958, when Elvis Presley joined the Army, some adoring fans sent a letter to President Eisenhower begging him not to let them shave The King's sideburns.<br /><br />The word julep, from Persian terms meaning "rose water," usually refers to a mint-and-bourbon alcoholic beverage with a kick as strong as a Kentucky Derby winner. But one family from North Carolina has a sauce they call julep: a half-empty bottle of ketchup mixed with apple cider vinegar. We've never heard of such a thing -- have you? <br /><br />Two years after his wife died of tuberculosis at the age of 25, physicist Richard Feynman wrote her an extraordinarily touching letter that remained sealed until after his death.<br /><br />Eudora Welty dropped the phrase man in the moon a couple times in her short story "Why I Live at the P.O." The phrase doesn't really reference the moon itself; it simply adds emphasis. Incidentally, seeing the image of a face or human figure in the moon is an example of pareidolia.  <br /><br />Some of the best things in the book Letters of Note are letters from kids to adults. One young fan's plea to Charles Schultz that he remove a character from Peanuts was actually met with approval.<br /><br />When someone says they should be bored for the hollow horn, it's typically a lighthearted way of saying they should have their own head examined. The saying comes from an old supposed disease of cattle that made them dull and lethargic, and diagnosed by boring a hole in one of their horns.<br /><br />In an earlier episode, we talked about regretting what you name your child, and we got a call from a mother who named her son Bodie and found that the name didn't travel so well. In France, people thought his name was "Body."<br /><br />The history of the exclamation Lord love a duck! is unclear, but it may be a euphemism for a rhyming curse word or for the mild oath For the love of Christ!<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/GglfTFN7HkA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> 2895189dccc4e9e7cddde0b4d76939fa Mon, 21 Sep 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_482.mp3 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/wEZBzfBCYg4/pumpkin-floater-rebroadcast-14-september-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": Your telephone is for talking, right? Or is it? We're guessing it's been a while since you sat next to a telephone waiting for it to ring. In fact, maybe you're one of those people who HATE to see that voicemail message light blinking. But for many of us, waiting for a text is a different. Also, California may be the "Dude!" capital of the country, but the term "dude" actually comes from New York City. And where exactly do you eat tweezer food? Plus, donning and doffing our clothes, tweezer food, the origin of kowtow, emcee, Arby's, and -orama, and modern etiquette for wedding invitations.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Sorry, Californians—the word dude actually comes from New York City, and goes all the way back to the 1800s.<br /><br />To kowtow, as in "to agree in an excessively eager or annoying way," comes from a Chinese term that means "to bow extremely low out of respect," from words that literally mean "knock head."<br /><br />Flight crews have a word for colleagues who check into a hotel, slam the door behind them, lock it shut, and don't re-emerge until checkout time. They're called slam-clickers.<br /><br />Addressing a wedding invitation to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith is pretty old-fashioned. It's more than appropriate these days to address both a husband and wife by their respective names. But if you're inviting someone who prefers the old-fashioned style, best to honor their preference.<br /><br />When flight attendants use the terms feather, leather, or fin, they're talking about "chicken, beef, or fish."<br /><br />Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski has sandwiched together the first letters of first and last names for a trivia game about famous folks.<br /><br />Long before English speakers adopted the suffix -orama, as in Scoutorama and smell-o-rama, there was French word panorama referring to "a great display or spectacle." Panorama comes from Greek words that mean "whole view." University of Alabama professor Michael Piccone details the development panorama in French in his book Anglicisms, Neologisms, and Dynamic French. In English, panorama first referred to spectacular, long paintings slowly unscrolled before 19th-century audiences, and later inspired other words that likewise ended in -orama.<br /><br />Firefighters don and doff their equipment, words that derive from "do on" and "do off." New York City firefighters' buff-colored uniforms apparently inspired our word buff, as in a fan -- a reference to fire enthusiasts who would show up in buff-colored coats to watch firefighters at work.<br /><br />A caller from Burlington, Vermont, has observed a slight change in the language of flight attendants' instructions, replacing your with that. Instead of saying "Put your coat in the overhead compartment," the ones on the airline she frequents say, "Put that coat in the overhead compartment." Linguistic anthropologist Barbara Clark has analyzed the scripted language of flight attendants and finds their deferential speech is calculated in part to gain the respect and loyalty of passengers.<br /><br />Remember when teenagers used to sit by the phone, waiting for it to ring? Now ask  teenagers if they do anything but text.<br /><br />Newscasters are going overboard with the euphemisms for death, like passed away, or simply passed. If someone died, it's fine to say exactly that.<br /><br />Jagging around is a classic Pittsburghese term for "fooling around," or "to poke fun or play tricks." It's likely related to jaggerbush, meaning a "thorny bush."<br /><br />You know when you go to a fancy restaurant and order something where every little ingredient looks like it was placed there with a tweezer? There's a term for that stuff: tweezer food.<br /><br />Emcee, or "Master of Ceremonies," is one of many cases where the initials of something are spelled out phonetically, like okay, deejay, jaycee, or Arby's. Although every letter of the alphabet can be sounded out this way, few words fall into this category.<br /><br />Some New York City street names also denote whole industries, such as Wall Street and Madison Avenue.<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/wEZBzfBCYg4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> d1380764abadbed30cd2600badb73bd5 Mon, 14 Sep 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_481.mp3 Thu, 10 Sep 2015 21:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/i2bCsRpCfYs/upstairs-basement-rebroadcast-7-september-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": Giving your baby an unusual moniker may seem like a great idea at the time. But what if you have second thoughts? One mother of a newborn had such bad namer's remorse, she poured out her heart to strangers online. Speaking of mothers and daughters: Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't write the "Little House on the Prairie" series alone. She had help from her daughter Rose--who turned out to be quite a demanding editor. And where in the world would you find an upstairs basement? Plus: scat singing, jook joints, makes no nevermind, from hell to breakfast, dog pound vs. animal shelter, and what you're supposed to do in an upstairs basement.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Giving your baby an uncommon name may seem like a swell idea. But what if you're the parent of a newborn and you already have namer’s remorse? <br /><br />A potch or putch is a slap, as in potch in tuchis. This term for spanking related to German Patsch, meaning "a slap." A listener in Springfield, New Hampshire, says her family also used the term potching around to describe her mischievous behavior as a toddler.<br /><br />Scat singing doesn't have any relation to scat, as in "excrement." Musical scat probably derives from the sound of one of the nonsense syllables in such songs.<br /><br />Sitzfleisch, from German words that literally mean "sit-flesh," refers to perseverance--the ability, in other words, to sit and endure something for a long period of time. <br /><br />How is Betsy Ross like tight pants? Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski wants to know.<br /><br />The term dog pound sounds a lot more menacing than animal shelter, until you learn that pound simply has to do with the idea of an enclosed space, as does a pond, which is often formed by enclosing a space and filling it with water.<br /><br />A jook joint is a roadside establishment where all sorts of drinking, dancing, and gambling may occur. Zora Neale Hurston described them in her 1934 essay "Characteristics of Negro Expression," and the term probably derives from a West African term for "jumping around." <br /><br />We've talked before about the term wasband, as in, ex-husband. A caller suggests another good term for that fellow: penultimate husband.<br /><br />The emphatic exclamation from hell to breakfast goes back to the Civil War.<br /><br />Here's a word unit palindrome to drop at a party: Escher drawing hands drew hands drawing Escher.<br /><br />The Little House on the Prairie series was actually a collaboration between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, who turns out to have been a bit of a bully.<br /><br />What is the difference between a ghost and a spirit? English bibles use both Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit, depending on the translation. The modern idea of the Scooby Doo-type ghost came about much later.<br /><br />In New England, a basement can technically be upstairs, since basement is another word for "bathroom."<br /><br />Certain baby names come with the perpetual problem of being easily confused, like Todd and Scott.<br /><br />Makes no never mind to me, meaning "I don't care," is part of the long history of the term nevermind.<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/i2bCsRpCfYs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> 2b5ca5cc826241f63655dbf369182ce1 Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:23:43 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_480.mp3 Thu, 03 Sep 2015 21:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/T-YI6EGBJvU/hang-a-salami-rebroadcast-31-august-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words":  What's so special about the phrase Sit on a pan, Otis!? It's an example of a palindrome -- a word or phrase that's spelled the same backwards as it is forwards. This year's contest known as the Oscars of the palindrome world inspires some clever, even poetic, surprises. Plus, tips for raising a child to be bilingual.  And what was the search engine Google called BEFORE it was called Google? Also, spelunking slang, hissy fits, language vs. dialect, persons vs. people, French folds, phthalates, and I don't care if it harelips the governor! <br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same both backwards and forwards, like the title of the book Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog! The SymmyS Awards, bestowed by The Palindromist Magazine are the Oscars of the palindrome world. Recent winners included one called "Espresso Rescue": Had a tonic? Cuppa cappuccino, ta-dah!<br /><br />Bilingual schools can be great for helping children become bilingual, but the best way to fully get there is through complete immersion over a long period of time.<br /><br />Hissy fits, or frivolous tantrums often associated with girls, particularly in the Southern United States, probably derive from the word hysterical. An Alabama caller started thinking about the origin of this word after learning of the opening of a nearby store called Hissy Fit Boutique.<br /><br />Word-unit palindromes are palindromes where all the words read the same back and forth, like this SymmyS winner, titled "Cold Feet at the Altar": Say I do? What do I do? What do I say?!<br /><br />Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski serenades us with a game of rewritten lyrics for Disney's Frozen.<br /><br />Before the search engine Google, there was the word googol. As mathematician Edward Kasner recounts in his book Mathematics and the Imagination, he asked his 9-year-old nephew Milton to coin a word for a huge number, specifically 10 to the 100th power, and that's what the youngster came up with. A googly, on the other hand, is a type of bowl in cricket.<br /><br />What's the difference between your boss and your therapist? Aili Jokela's word-unit palindrome has the answer.<br /><br />Which is correct: several persons or several people? The word persons tends to be used in corporate, legalese contexts, and people is the more natural term.<br /><br />A Hollywood entrance, in spelunker slang, is when a cave has a large, epic opening. Burkard Bilger's epic article in The New Yorker on the world of squeeze freaks and other extreme cavers contains lots of great caving slang.<br /><br />In an earlier episode, we talked about whether it's condescending to say you're proud of someone, and the majority of you who responded agreed that it’s best to say something that doesn't make it about you.<br /><br />The difference between Mandarin and Cantonese points to a general difference between languages and dialects: languages tend to have a whole different nationalism or geopolitical power associated with them. For more about Mandarin and Cantonese in particular, check out the work of linguist Victor Mair on Language Log.<br /><br />Take a sheet of paper. Fold it in half. Then fold it in half again. That's called a French fold. <br /><br />Phthalate, a compound in chemistry, got us thinking about other words with ph and th right next to each other. <br /><br />Another winning palindrome from the SymmyS: You swallow pills for anxious days and nights. And days, anxious for pills, swallow you.<br /><br />I don't care if it harelips the queen means "come hell or high water," or "regardless of the consequences." The phrase is particularly popular in Texas, as are such variants as harelips the governor, harelips the president, harelips every cow in Texas, harelips the Pope, harelips the nation, and harelips all the cats in Grimes County, among many others. Harelip refers to the congenital deformity known as a cleft palate, which resembles the mouth of a rabbit, and is sometimes considered offensive. <br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/T-YI6EGBJvU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> c585206c9048bc788b06c8b191083c48 Mon, 31 Aug 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_479.mp3 Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/qcnsBxDTB-U/hard-words-are-hard-rebroadcast-24-august-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": The SAT is changing things up, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just because words like membranous are no longer in the verbal section doesn't mean kids aren't learning important vocabulary. And speaking of useful terms, shouldn't we have an English word for "the parents of your child's spouse"? Actually, there is one. And if your daughter gets divorced, should she call her former husband her . . .  wasband? Plus, Sheboyganisms like fry out and hot tamales, please find attached and other e-mail language, the two meanings of inertia, Z-plurals, and mispronounced words.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Precocious readers need not be ashamed of mispronouncing words like misled or epitome—it's never too late to actually hear it pronounced properly for the first time, although it can be a little embarrassing.<br /><br />When the term ex-husband sounds too prickly of a descriptor, try wasband. <br /><br />Nothing's hungrier than a woodpecker with a headache. Think about it for a second—it does makes sense.<br /><br />In the scientific sense, inertia is the tendency for things to continue doing what they're doing, like staying in motion. But the common meaning of inertia almost always refers to the tendency to do nothing, making inertia something that must be overcome in order to get things done. <br /><br />If you want to check the weather without leaving the sofa, just call in the dogs and see if they're wet.<br /><br />Quiz Guy John Chaneski is back with his classic License Plate Game. He'll give you three letters, and you have to come up with the shortest possible word that contains them in that order.<br /><br />To some, the phrase please find attached might sound like musty old language for the e-mail age. It's always smart to be formal when the context is all business, but there are other phrases that convey the same meaning, such as I've attached and Here is the document you requested.<br /><br />Why shouldn't it be a term of endearment to call someone a cherry Lifesaver? Cherry's the best flavor!<br /><br />If you grew up reading Hardy Boys books, chances are you knew the term indicted long before you ever heard it pronounced.<br /><br />The expressions such as and such clauses as are both acceptable. <br /><br />The P/U dialect, common in the South, is marked by distinct emphasis on the first syllable of words such as police and umbrella.<br /><br />Parents of a toddler may wonder if Uh-oh should count as their child's first word. Yep, and it's actually pretty common first word for little kids, since mishaps are things they learn about early on.<br /><br />We need a common word for "the parents of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law." Although English has the word affines, it's rarely used outside of such fields as anthropology or psychiatry. Other languages have more commonly used terms for "your child's in-laws," such as Yiddish machatunim or machetunim, and Spanish consuegros. <br /><br />The SAT is cutting depreciatory and membranous from the verbal section of the test, but don't go insane in the membrane—there's been no depreciation in knowledge among the youth.<br /><br />Z-plurals are plurals that would end with an s but get a z instead, for style pointz.<br /><br />In and around Sheboygan, Wisconsin, barbecues are known as fry outs even though nothing's fried. And a hot tamale is more like a sloppy joe sandwich.<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/qcnsBxDTB-U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> 69d3a90df8c3f9ad859af2d6f628dca2 Mon, 24 Aug 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_478-dt6.mp3 Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:15:15 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/-EHRt_4oydQ/brown-as-a-berry-rebroadcast-17-august-2015 <p>It used to be that you called any mixed-breed dog a mutt. But at today's dog parks, you're just as likely to run into schnugs, bassadors, and dalmadoodles. Also, if someone has a suntan, you might say he's brown as a berry. But then, when's the last time you saw a berry that was brown? The story behind this phrase goes all the way back to Chaucer. And do you want your doctor practicing preventive medicine -- or preventative? Plus, at bay, buy the farm, hand-running, all intents and purposes vs. all intensive purposes, silly Bible jokes, and hilariously useless lines from foreign language phrasebooks.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />Don't call these dogs mutts: they're bassadors, schnugs and dalmadoodles.<br /><br />Keeping something at bay comes from the baying sound that hunting dogs make when they've got their prey in a standoff. <br /><br />Brown as a berry goes back to Chaucer and the 1300's, when brown was the new dark purple.<br /><br />For all intents and purposes, the phrase all intensive purposes is just plain wrong. It's an example of what linguists call an eggcorn.<br /><br />When aviators speak of George flying the plane, they mean it's on autopilot.<br /><br />Our Quiz Master John Chaneski has a game that's all about the letter O.<br /><br />Gawpy is an old term for "foolish," and refers to the image of a person gaping stupidly.<br /><br />The term preventive is much more common than preventative, particularly in American English, but it's just a matter of preference. No need to get argumentative about it.<br /><br />One folksy way to take leave after a visit is to say, It's time to put the chairs in the wagon.<br /><br />If the word consecutively doesn't feel exciting enough, there's always hand-running.<br /><br />God is a baseball fan, according to one of our listeners. It's right there in Genesis, where it talks about what happened in the big inning.<br /><br />My postillion has been struck by lightning is one of many lines found in foreign language phrase books that have no real purpose. Mark Twain complained about the same thing in his essay, "The Awful German Language."<br /><br />A whole nother may feel right to say, at least informally, and you will find it in dictionaries, but it's better to avoid it in formal writing and speech.<br /><br />The idiom buy the farm, meaning to die, could've originated from similar phrases, like bought the plot, as in the plot where one is buried.<br /><br />Sorry, travel industry PR people: honeyteering, as in "doing volunteer work on your honeymoon," won't catch on as a term. At least we hope not.<br /><br />As members of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club know, Andy sometimes shook his head and declared, You're a bird in this world, meaning that someone was unique or otherwise remarkable. The expression appears to have originated with the show's writers or perhaps with Griffith himself.<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/-EHRt_4oydQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> e7c0ee398dd725061d49c8341bb08448 Mon, 17 Aug 2015 03:59:00 +0000 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.blubrry.com/grammargirl/traffic.libsyn.com/grammar/gg_477.mp3 Thu, 13 Aug 2015 21:30:00 +0000 http://feeds.waywordradio.org/~r/awwwpodcast/~3/sN3yiCUcQvE/keep-your-pants-on-rebroadcast-10-august-2015 <p>This week on "A Way with Words": If everyone on the planet spoke a single language, wouldn't that make life a whole lot easier? For that matter, is a common world language even possible? Maybe for a minute or so--until new words and phrases start springing up. Also, did you ever wonder why the guy at your local coffee shop is a barista and not a baristo? There's a good grammatical reason. Finally, pass the gorp--we have the scoop on the name of this crunchy snack. Plus, gorp, double bubble, concertina wire, the story behind the movie title Winter's Bone, safe and sound, and a couple vs. a pair.<br /><br />FULL DETAILS<br /><br />The finalists at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament wear giant headphones to block out the noise of the crowd and color commentary. As it happens, the white noise being pumped into them is the pre-recorded sound of a United Nations cocktail party.<br /><br />Male baristas aren't called baristos for the same reason that male Sandinistas aren't Sandinistos. There's a certain class of nouns in both Italian and Spanish where the definite article changes to indicate gender, but the noun stays the same.<br /><br />If you need a password that contains at least eight characters and one capital, there's always Mickey Minnie Pluto Huey Louie Dewey Donald Goofy Sacramento.<br /><br />Contrary to popular belief, gorp is not an acronym for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts. Earlier recipes for this crunchy snack contained all kinds of things, like soybeans, sunflower seeds, oats, pretzels, raisins, Wheat Chex and kelp, as in John McPhee's famous essay, "Travels in Georgia."<br /><br />Working double bubble is when you get paid double for working overtime or outside your normal work hours, and it's a classic bit of British rhyming slang.<br /><br />Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski invites his alter ego, Dr. Word, to present a quiz about Latin names for working stiffs.<br /><br />If someone's impatiently pounding on your front door, you might respond Keep your pants on! The origin of this phrase is unclear, though it may be related to keep your shirt on, and other expressions that refer to partially disrobing before a fistfight. <br /><br />To fill your boots means "to go after something with gusto." Similarly, the tableside injunction Fill your boots! is an invitation to chow down.<br /><br />The idiom safe and sound tells the story of the English language in three words: safe comes from French, and sound is a Germanic word with the same root as Gesundheit, meaning "health."<br /><br />Concertina wire, the coiled barbed wire that's compact and easy to move around, takes its name from the concertina, an accordion-like instrument. <br /><br />You wouldn't say the NASA launched a space shuttle, or you watched March Madness on the CBS. Similarly, initialisms like NSA and FBI are sometimes said without the article, especially by insiders.<br /><br />A quiddler is someone who wastes his energy on trifles. <br /><br />If we ever settled on one universal language that everyone spoke, it would last about a minute before variants of slang started popping up.<br /><br />The title Winter's Bone, an acclaimed film based on Daniel Woodrell's country noir novel, is an idiom the author created by personifying the season, which throws the main character a bone. <br /><br />Oxford University doesn't really have a mascot, so a listener asks on our Facebook page: Why not call them the Oxford Commas?<br /><br />A couple is not necessarily the same as a pair; it can certainly mean more than two, and it's always dependent on context.<br /><br />A hawk in its prime state of fitness is known as a yarak, a word that may derive from a Persian word meaning "strength, ability."<br /><br />To secrete means "to produce and discharge a fluid," a back-formation from secretion. But a similarly spelled verb means "to deposit in a hiding place." For both verbs, the pronunciation of the past tense, secreted, requires a long e in the middle.<br /><br />This episode was hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett.<br /><br />--<br /><br />A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br /><br />Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:<br /><br />Email: words@waywordradio.org<br /><br />Phone: <br />United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673<br />London +44 20 7193 2113<br />Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771<br /><br />Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate<br />Site: http://waywordradio.org/<br />Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/<br />Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/<br />Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/<br />Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/<br />Skype: skype://waywordradio <br /><br />Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/awwwpodcast/~4/sN3yiCUcQvE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> 7d7d4d7e75a8aa9bf7ea1400c3078374 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 03:59:00 +0000