A Year of Words

(upbeat music) You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett. And I’m Martha Barnette.

Well, it’s that time of year again.

Grant, how many shopping days is it until the American Dialect Society announces its new word of the year? Well, I don’t know the number of days, but we’ll vote on it January 9th in San Francisco as part of the annual American Dialect Society and Linguistic Society of America Conference. Oh, I thought you’d be counting the days. No, no, I’m making the list, though, and checking them twice.

I’ve got a lot of word candidates for word of the year nominations. Right, so what words are you pulling for? Well, you’ve probably heard this one, staycation. Oh, yeah, that’s one of my favorites. Because of the expensive price of gasoline this summer, supposedly, people were staying at home when they were taking their vacations from work instead of traveling to the beach or Disney World or wherever, so they called that a staycation. I think that’s a strong contender.

I think that’s my legs. I do, too, I do. And there are others, one that I like and I commented on in the press is the word recessionista.

Did you know this one? Recessionista, I saw a headline about it.

What does it mean? This has a couple of meanings.

One of them is somebody who is kind of a bear in a financial sense and believes that we’re headed for a recession.

And then another one is a style-conscious person who now shops carefully for clothes and accessories and fashion items so that they can look fashionable but spend less.

That is, they’re watching their money and they’re a fashionista who is paying attention to the fact that we might be in a recession, therefore they are a recessionista. What do you think about that one? Don’t know.

I’ll nominate them and let other people vote.

How about that? Sounds good.

Well, we’ll be eagerly awaiting the results.

So what’s your candidate for word of the year for 2008? Let us know.

Call us at 1-877-9299673.

That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.

Or you can send an email to words@waywordradio.org. Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, this is Surop, I’m calling from San Diego. Hey, Surop. Hi, Surop, what’s up? How are you guys doing? Super fine, what’s up? Well, I’m calling about traveling abroad.

And back in 2003, I was in Armenia on kind of a youth mission.

And I was, let me set it up for you.

I was talking to a security guard outside and he spoke a little bit of English and I spoke a little bit of Armenian, but I basically was trying to say supermarket, supermarket, and he wouldn’t understand me.

So I just kind of tried, and I’ve done this before.

I kind of said it with an accent like, “Suped market.” And right when I said that, he got it like right away.

And so I kind of felt bad about, kind of it sounded like I was making fun of him, but it worked.

So I was just wondering about how that works.

You know, what’s the etiquette about that? Interesting, so you were saying the English word, supermarket, to someone who speaks Armenian? Yeah, yeah, I mean, he spoke a little bit of English and I could tell he wasn’t understanding when I said supermarket.

And, you know, I could just kind of sense his accent.

So I kind of put his accent on the word supermarket and it worked.

I mean, it clicked like instantly, he got it. Huh. I’m not surprised, I really am not.

‘Cause it does work, it absolutely works.

Again and again and again, you’re gonna find, no matter where you are, that if you can speak English as your first language in the accent that a local might use, they’re gonna understand you better if their English isn’t that great. Yeah, well, I have one more question kind of on the same topic.

If you didn’t mind, it was just when I speak Armenian, I was born and raised in San Diego, California, so I have an American accent, but I know the proper pronunciation of Armenian.

And so when I speak Armenian, I’m more inclined to speak it, you know, with the English accent.

And when I speak it with the proper pronunciation, it sounds inauthentic, so I was wondering where you guys thought about that one also. Well, these two points that you’re making, Serap, are kind of two sides of the same coin, aren’t they? Yeah, yeah, I guess they’re the same thing. Do you speak another language besides those two?

Not that I’m expecting that you have to, but to French and German or Spanish? Spanish, and yeah, you know, my family’s very language-oriented, so. When I was in the seventh grade next, I took my first Spanish class, our instructor wasn’t very good, but one thing she said stuck with me.

She said, “Look, just act like you’re making fun of somebody who speaks Spanish.” Yeah, yeah. Imitate them over enunciate, like exaggerate these, like the trilled R, and exaggerate the way the S is a little more hyper-sibilant than it is, you know, there’s more of an S-ful sound in Spanish than there is in English sometimes.

And she said, “You’re going to get close to it, because after a while, you’re gonna drop back that exaggeration a little bit, and kind of fall into a more natural sound than if you insist on sticking to your English vowels and your English consonants.”

‘Cause there was nothing worse than the woman who said, “Donde esta el bano.” Exactly, exactly, I mean, you don’t want to say it like that, even though that’s natural for you. No, no. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to tell him where the bathroom is. Right, right, but you know, if you exaggerate the pronunciation in like a really forceful way, you will, you’ll fall back to it.

I think it’s totally fine for you to speak Armenian the best that you know how. Yeah, yeah. But of course you want to be understood, too.

So, but you know, go back to your original point.

Martha, when you’re abroad, and you speak Spanish or whatever language, do you find yourself speaking with people who kind of have no English and doing the same thing that Sarah is doing? Actually, no, no, I haven’t had that experience.

I was thinking about what that would sound like.

And I think more annoying than that would be just the way that English speakers, when they’re traveling abroad, so many of them tend to just speak louder. Oh, yeah, I hate that. That’s so embarrassing.

Don’t you just want to hide Sarah when you hear that? And it’s rude, I mean, I think that’s more rude. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I’ve done this in French, and I’ve done this in Swedish, and I’ve done this in Spanish, and so I’ve done the same things, Sarah, I’ve kind of like, you know, taken on the local accent of my English just so maybe they would get it.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Yeah, I may do that, but it’s not intentional.

It’s sort of being influenced by them. Oh, I see, I see, so you’re just accidentally picking up the way that they’re talking, kind of fitting into the situation? Yeah, I think that’s quite true, yeah.

Yeah, well, thanks, guys, so much. Hey, listen, how do you say goodbye in Armenian? you know, it’s more like have a good time, it’s like genats, like love genats, have a good life, have a good spirit, have a good time. If I say, if I say (speaking in foreign language) does that mean anything? That means thank you.

Okay. (speaking in foreign language) Bye bye. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, bye bye.

That’s the only Armenian I know. Grant, I’m so impressed. Grant, Grant, and then the French say, (speaking in foreign language) Well, if you’ve got a question about language or languages or names or naming, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

You can also send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grandmother, this is Kevin John Black, how are you today?

Hello, Kevin John Black, where are you calling from?

I’m calling from San Francisco, California.

Oh, hey, how’s in San Francisco?

Oh, it’s beautiful today.

Well, Kevin John Black, what are you calling about?

Well, you know, it’s funny, I have a friend who lives in New York City, his name’s Richard, and I try to give him a call and let him know what’s going on with words ’cause he’s a big wordy too.

And we were actually talking about retronyms that he discussed not too long ago.

And he brought up a subject that Kevin John, what’s the derivation of the word buckaroo?

And of course he knew.

So I said, you know, I have no idea.

And he said, well, I know, but I’ll give you a little hint.

It sounds like another word.

And the first letter might be mispronounced as another letter.

So I thought about it for a little while and then I said, well, let me see, how about B, V, V, and I, buckaro.

So he said, that’s it.

He said that somehow buckaro got changed into buckaroo.

So someone listening to buckaro and then they couldn’t pronounce it and instead of saying buckaro, they say buckaroo.

Right, the Spanish word for cowboy.

Right, right.

So I don’t know if it’s apocryphal or not, or if that’s the exact derivation, but then we thought, well, I wonder if there are any other type of words like this.

And if there are, what would be the name for that situation?

What you’re talking about is the process by which that word goes from a Spanish spelling and pronunciation to an English spelling and pronunciation.

Right?

Correct.

There’s a boring word for it, but there is a word for it.

It’s rationalization.

We rationalize the word in English because we only hear it at first, right?

If you’re not reading, if you’re just hearing the word vaquero and you’re trying to make it fit your understanding of English, you work it out and you say, all right, so that sounds like a B kind of at the beginning and there’s a hard sound in there that’s probably a K, probably C, K, ’cause we don’t have Ks standing alone in English.

You kind of work it out so that it becomes an English word and follows generally accepted English spelling, English pronunciation, and then you write it that way.

If you look at the early uses of buckaroo in English, this is not gonna surprise you, you’ll find that the spellings are all over the map as people try to rationalize this.

And then gradually some consensus developed over how to spell it and the spelling that we have today, B-U-C-K-A-R-O-O, is now the accepted one.

Well, Kevin, John, I can think of a couple more words like that.

Okay.

Are you aware of any others like that?

You know, I’m not aware of any other rationalizations, more than the ones I do every day.

(laughing)

Yeah, sure, sure.

Well, all of the ones I’m thinking of are cowboy type words.

Oh, these are all from Spanish then?

Sure, yeah.

Like lariat.

Lariat, exactly, from Spanish, la reata.

And how about vamos?

Oh, sure.

Let’s get out of here.

Oh, vamos, oh, very good, yeah.

And cinch, most people don’t know this, but cinch, as in to cinch a bilt, comes from Spanish.

No kidding.

Bronco and Mustang, and there’s a ton of these.

So, Kevin, John Black, how does that sound?

That sounds great, I really thank you for that.

We were just thinking, are there other words?

It’s fascinating that they’re all kind of cowboy terms.

Yeah, yeah, isn’t it?

Well, we’re just kind of focused on that because that’s the word.

But this happens in English as well.

You know the word ornery?

Mm-ornery?

Well, it’s spelled ornery, O-R-N-E-R-Y.

That is a rationalization of a dialect pronunciation of the word ordinary.

Oh, isn’t that great?

So it actually happens within the language as well, not necessarily from another language.

We rationalize it to kind of fit what we’re hearing.

Very good, very good.

Cool?

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you so much for your call.

We enjoyed the show and I’m sure I’ll get Richard to listen to more.

Excellent, all of them, they’re all online at waywordradio.org.

Great, thank you very much.

All right, thank you very much.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, give us a call, the number’s 1-877-9299673, that’s 1-877-WAYWORD, or you can always email us your questions, that address is words@waywordradio.org.

You can also try us on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org/discussion.

Martha, what’s your word of the year nomination?

Well, it’s a phrase, or maybe the word is just one word, Joe the.

Joe the?

Yeah.

Like Joe the plumber, or Joe the financial advisor.

Joe the florist.

With Joe the plumber making such a big appearance in the election this year, I think that’s gonna stick around for a while, contrived or not, don’t you?

Well, it’s got a long history in politics anyway.

Joe lunchbox, Joe lunch pail, Joe six pack, Joe, there’s a lot of these different political expressions that have always referred to the blue collar worker and they start with Joe and they follow with something else.

So I would nominate Joe the.

Joe the, Joe the, okay, yeah, well, I can see that.

I can see how that might work.

If you’d like to nominate your word of the year, send us an email to words@waywordradio.org or call us with any of your questions about language to 1-877-929-9673.

(upbeat music)

Next up on A Way with Words is our weekly word puzzle.

Stay tuned.

(upbeat music)

You’re listening to A Way with Words, I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett and we’re joined now by our fabulous quiz guide, John Chonesky.

Hello, Grant.

John, come on down.

I’m fabulous.

You are looking fabulous.

Are you gonna win a toaster today on the show?

I certainly hope so ’cause I could use a toaster.

Actually, we could use a toaster oven.

A toaster oven?

Yeah.

You have a puzzle?

Yeah, why don’t we move on to this puzzle?

Is it more interesting than what we’re talking about?

More interesting than appliances, I hope so.

Now, as you know, I strive, I strive ever onward and upward aiming for that one puzzle that is second to none.

So that’s why this quiz is about superlatives.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Now, it’s pretty simple.

Each of the clues suggests a quote or a title that contains a superlative.

For example, in a classic fairy tale, this line follows, “Mirror, mirror on the wall.”

Who’s the fairest of them all?

Fairest.

Right, fairest.

Fairest and then what?

Just fairest.

Oh, okay, fairest.

That’s it.

No trickery here, we’re just gonna—

You say that, but usually there’s like, and there’s another element to it.

Well, I’m not gonna say they’re all a walk in the park.

Oh, I see.

It might be a challenge or two in here.

This isn’t a fairy tale quiz then.

I call this one, “Best puzzle ever.”

Okay.

All right.

All right, let’s do the first.

This phrase is the nickname of several large theme parks found around the world.

Several large theme parks found around the world.

Again, very famous theme parks.

They have this, they all share this nickname.

At least the two that I know of in the U.S. both share this nickname.

Gee, I was gonna go with—

These are Disney related theme parks?

Yes, they are.

What is the motto for Disney?

Is it, “The Happiest—”

There we go.

Is that it, “The Happiest—”

“Happiest Place on Earth” or something?

“The Happiest Place on Earth.”

That’s right.

This is the title of a 1978 Broadway musical which takes place in the fictional town of Gilbert.

The show contains numbers titled, “The Aggie Song,” “Hard Candy Christmas,” and “The Bus from Amarillo.”

Oh, “The Something Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

Where’s your superlative?

I know, I can’t remember the superlative.

The greatest little, no the—

It’s not the worst.

The best little whorehouse.

Yeah, that’s a— And what’s his face for that, Lehrer?

No?

No, I don’t know. I don’t know about it.

“The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” is correct.

It was made in 1982.

It’s a musical, a movie musical starring Dolly Parton. Right. Now there is a dark side to superlatives as well.

Of course. Of course. Keith Olbermann deals out this dubious distinction on his MSNBC show.

Do you know what that is? Right, “The Worst Person in the World.” “The Worst Person in the World.”

Very good.

Among the recipients of this award are columnist Robert Novak, Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, and the Ronald McDonald who held up a Wendy’s. (laughing) All right.

Now, Olbermann admits that “Worst Person in the World” was inspired in part by this classic George Carlin observation, in which he notes that by the process of ranking, this person must exist.

Can I, if you remember— I don’t remember that routine.

I used to listen to Carlin regularly about it. I’ll give you a hint.

By the process of ranking, this person must exist, and somebody has an appointment to see him tomorrow. The worst dentist in the world? The worst doctor in the world.

That’s right, yeah.

You don’t say the worst dentist.

Someone is the worst doctor in the world, and someone’s going to see him tomorrow.

My favorite.

Rest in peace, George.

Now this descriptor of a very, very bad situation can be found in the titles of several books by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. I have no idea. Well, these guidebooks offer advice on what to do if you have to, say, jump from a moving train or— Oh, yeah. Right. The worst case survival— Scenario. Worst case scenario.

They’re called the worst case scenario survival handbooks. I think I have the original one. What’s your favorite worst case scenario? Let’s see, how to cross a piranha-infested river, perhaps? Really?

That’s one of my favorite. Don’t. My favorite worst case scenario is I have too much money. (laughing) That’s terrible. So heavy, my back. In my back, the gold is too much. (laughing) All right, now we go back to the positive side of life.

This is the first line of the 1959 hit song, “Money, That’s What I Want,” by Barrett Strong.

♪ Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo ♪ ♪ They say the best things in life are free ♪ That’s it. The best things in life are free. Nice. Whew, had to go back to college for that one. That was good. Yeah, I was reaching back into the womb and trying to find that one. (laughing) Now we know— That came out wrong. Now we know what Martha was doing in college.

♪ Party ain’t bad ♪ All right, here’s the next.

Tom Brokaw popularized this phrase to describe those Americans who fought World War II and those who kept the home front intact. All right, the greatest generation. Right, the greatest generation.

They are preceded by the lost generation and followed by the silent generation.

That’s a little trivia for your pub team. Thank you. Finally, this phrase is used to describe anything that is new and fantastic.

It does the describing by way of comparison with a basic food staple. Oh, The freshest? No, better than sliced bread. That’s superlative, throw superlative in there. I did better. Best thing since, how about best thing since? The greatest thing since sliced bread. Greatest, gosh.

You would think that this quiz wouldn’t be so hard. I did a couple of stumbling blocks in there, a couple of tricks, but you guys were actually, well— Really bad, it’s probably the worst quiz that I’ve done. You were the best, but you were pretty good. Thank you, John, for joining us today with your puzzle.

You’ll have something new for us next week, I hope. I’ll see you then, take care. See you. All right, bye-bye.

And if you have a question about wordplay, language, grammar, slang, regional dialects, the best number to use is 1-877-929-9673. That’s 1-877-WAYWORD, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Becky Kennedy calling from San Diego. Hello, Becky. Hello, Becky. Hi, I am calling because the other day I was getting my five-year-old up, and I said something about her being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and started wondering, what is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? Oh, are you worried that it’s something derogatory? No, not at all. Oh, okay, okay. I just had no idea what it meant to be bushy-tailed.

It means you hussy.

No, you shouldn’t say that to your child.

No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Becky, do you have a guess? It sounds maybe some kind of critter-oriented, maybe. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Do they have squirrels in San Diego? Yeah. It’s a squirrel. It’s a squirrel. It’s a squirrel.

Squirrels are, they’re little chattering, little jerky, active, hyperactive.

They look like they’re jumped up on acorn juice, don’t they? Yes, they do. That’s why it refers explicitly to a squirrel.

It’s over 150 years old, that expression. Over 150 years old. It’s the interesting thing about bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, it’s what Henry Fowler called a Siamese twin expression, because you’ve got X and Y, and they always come paired together.

It’s always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, right?

Just like it’s always spit and polish or sick and tired.

They’re paired together. Okay. So I think it’s kind of nice to call your little girl a squirrel, a squirrel’s a cute animal, right? Squirrel’s fun, I think she’ll appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I call my son all sorts of animals.

I call him the otter monkey frog pterodactyl. Okay then. (laughing) Well, you know, it is at different times of the day they behave different ways, and different animal features leap out at you. This is true. When he walks around the house going, “!”

Then he’s the pterodactyl. (laughing) Well, Becky, do you have coffee before you do this? No. No? No, not a coffee drinker. Do you give your child coffee? Do I give her coffee?

Not usually. Well, she would be bushy-tailed, let me tell ya. I’m sure she would. She’d be dressed at the door and waiting for the bus in no time. I don’t think I can handle her being any more bushy-tailed. (laughing) That reminds me of that famous sign that’s supposedly in a bookstore in Portland, which is all unattended children will be given a puppy and an espresso. (laughing) Wonderful, well, thank you guys so much.

All right, thank you so much for your call, Becky. You’re welcome. Thanks, Becky, bye-bye. Bye-bye. A puppy and an espresso. Can you imagine that?

A place with a little like three-year-olds running around hopped up on caffeine, so. Well, if you’ve got a question about animal language or animal sounds or you just wanna make a moo noise into the phone, give us a call at 1-877-929-9673 or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org. Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hello, this is Mary Jo calling from Indianapolis. Hi, Mary Jo, what’s going on? Well, I have this little pet peeve and I’m gonna let you be my definitive source on this. All right.

All right. Well, it regards the usage of the word comprise.

I’m seeing more and more in print the phrase comprised of.

And my understanding was always that the word comprise means is made up of, and then you follow the word itself with a list.

And the other day I found a kind of a high-end local publication and in a bold subhead it had is comprised of and a long list.

I used to work in publishing and I know how many editors see these things before they get into print and I just wondered, am I wrong?

Have things changed? Mary Jo, the short answer is no, you’re not wrong. Hallelujah.

But you know, I see it more incorrectly now in print then and it’s one of those words you almost never hear in conversation. Well, you’re right.

And that’s sort of the second part of the answer, which is yes, things are changing, I think.

So no, you are exactly right.

You technically, strictly speaking, to make those strict English teachers happy, you never ever want to use comprised of.

Traditionally, comprise means to contain or embrace it.

It has the same Latin root as comprehend.

So it’s sort of like getting your arms around something.

For example, you would say the jury comprises six men and six women, it’s not comprised of them.

The jury comprises six men and six women.

But, and here’s the but, you know, these days, even though you are absolutely completely right, I think comprised, if you use it the way that I’m talking about, the jury comprises six men and six women, I think people do a double take.

I think it sounds a little bit stilted, even though traditionally that’s correct.

I think you’re right.

Even the most conservative sources for language will admit that this is well on its road to becoming standard.

There is still a distinction to be made, but it’s definitely very common in print.

Well, I guess I’ll give up my purest attitude on that then.

There’s no reason it can’t be a part of your own personal style.

There’s no reason you have to give in there.

If you prefer to say comprised and not comprised of, then go for it.

Nobody will follow you.

Yeah, but this may be a pet peeve you just wanna release into the wild.

Well, I was gonna say it’s not that important.

But sometimes pet peeves, you just keep them around for company, right?

(laughing)

I like that.

I’ll have to find another.

Well, I’m sure that won’t be too hard.

Mary Jo, thanks for calling.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your input.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, if you have a pet peeve you’d like to share with us, we’ll listen.

The number’s 1-877-9299673, or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Steve from Indianapolis.

Hello, Steve.

Hello, Steve.

Welcome.

Thank you.

What’s going on?

Well, I called because I am a culinary student and we have a young Asian lady in our classroom.

And I don’t know if you’re familiar with the language of the kitchen, but it’s usually a little more coarse.

And somebody made a joke about this being a, you know, some exercise that we’re doing, being a Chinese fire drill.

And I said, “That’s probably pretty offensive.”

And I’m like, “Why, where does it come from?”

And I wasn’t sure, so that’s why I called you guys.

Because what I told my classmates was that most likely it probably started in the old West because there was a lot of racial tension and a lot of their anger was directed towards the Chinese immigrants.

And so that was kind of my opinion, but I had no basis of fact for that.

So what exactly was happening in the kitchen?

Oh, I don’t know, but sometimes it gets a little hectic and it really wasn’t even that hectic, but they were trying to figure out what the phrase meant and my opinion on that was that it just meant confusion.

I know that we think of, you know, the high school kids getting out of the car and running around and getting back in a new, you know, in a different door or whatever, but I think it’s often associated with just any kind of general mass confusion.

Confusion’s the right word for it though.

That’s absolutely right.

I’m not sure that it’s only high school students that are doing the old routine at the stoplight though. (laughing) Probably not, probably not.

Hopefully nobody’s doing it right now. When you say it dates back to the, you said the West or the Old West, how far back did you mean? I was just thinking like the 1840s. Well, I know for certain it comes from the 1940s.

I don’t think it’s quite that. I don’t think it goes back to the 1840s, at least as far as the historical record is concerned.

This term has been pretty well researched, but it does connect to a larger trend in English, especially in British English of using Chinese whatever to refer to something that is disorganized or something that is stupid or something that is less good than it should be, something that is poor or poorly done.

So it’s derogatory.

That’s the thing about Chinese fire drills.

It actually isn’t a really polite thing to say. Yeah, I would find it offensive. Yeah, and you’ll find that most of the uses of it over the years in print, and I think many of them out loud that people would say outside of like, again, the event at the stoplight are probably meant unkindly or not in a positive way.

And that was one of the reasons I got right on it because while I don’t mind our joking around and it gets a little out of hand, when you do something like that, consulting to the person that’s there, first of all, she’s not Chinese, and second of all, I knew that the phrase was derogatory.

So I kind of tried to put a little, inject a little intelligence into it for one and tried to put a little curb on it. Yeah, thank you, Steve. The one that I use instead of that is a goat rodeo. A goat rodeo. Is that similar to herding cats? Yeah, exactly.

That was the other one, exactly, herding cats.

Did you ever go to the county fair and get one of those Chinese finger traps? Yeah, where you stick your fingers in the ends. That’s right.

These are Chinese used in exactly the same way as in the Chinese fire drill.

‘Cause remember, it’s a little tube made of, I guess, woven paper or wicker, and you put your fingers in each end, and it’s hard to get your fingers out unless you turn your fingers opposite ways, right?

And so the whole idea is that it’s a Chinese finger trap because you must be stupid if you can’t get your fingers out of there.

Again, also derogatory, not nice. Yeah, well, thank you guys. And thank you so much for your call. All right. All right. Bye-bye, Steve. Bye-bye, Steve. The number to call is 1-877-929-9673.

You can send us email to words@waywordradio.org, and you can try us on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org/discussion. (piano music) (piano music) Hockey mom will probably be another big word of the year choice for a lot of people. Oh, of course. It follows on the pattern of soccer mom, right? Right, right. And in the same way, kind of means a suburban family-oriented woman who is active in her children’s life, carting them around to sports practices and after school events and the like. Right, and has a $150,000 wardrobe. Yes, yes.

Well, you know, Credit Crunch was picked by Oxford University Press in the UK as their word of the year.

That means that credit is now kind of hard to come by.

But Oxford University Press in the United States have picked hypermiling, which is working really hard to get the maximum miles per gallon out of your gasoline. Ooh, that’s nice.

I like that, hypermiling. Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.

I mean, it’s an interesting word.

I just don’t think it was particularly significant this year, but you know, when the dictionary makers pick their words of the year, it’s mostly a publicity stunt. Actually, I think it should be something more, I don’t know, Anglo-Saxon, like soft pedaling or, you know, light footing or something. I see. Don’t you think? You should write them and tell them. I will. I’ll give you some names. I will.

Well, why not call us with your candidate for word of the year?

The number’s 1-877-929-9673, or you can send an email to words@waywordradio.org. (upbeat music) Coming up on A Way with Words, it’s our quiz about words found in the odd nooks and crannies of English.

Stay tuned. Support for A Way with Words comes from Word Smart, the vocabulary building software.

Improving your vocabulary, reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills will increase your chances for success.

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(upbeat music) You’re listening to A Way with Words.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for this week’s slang challenge where we try to stump a member of the National Puzzlers League with some curious terminology.

Today’s contestant is Mike Selinker from Seattle, Washington.

Well, hello, Mike.

Hey there.

Hiya, Mike.

Why are you two there in Seattle?

I’m a game designer, a puzzle designer out here for the company Lone Shark Games.

Oh, Lone Shark.

Video games or board games?

What kind of games are we talking about?

We do all sorts of things.

We do alternate reality games or our new ones called Citizens of Virtue that’s out now.

Citizens of Virtue?

Huh.

Yeah, it’s a new highly controversial game.

What’s the object of the game, to be virtuous?

Well, it depends on who you talk to, but yes.

There’s some, there’s some of the good guys are trying to be virtuous and the bad guys are trying a very different way to be virtuous.

Oh.

It’s an interesting little game.

So we do that, we do event, big puzzle events.

We do board games and card games.

We do electronic games, we do all sorts of things.

Oh, man, Grant, we have a real puzzler on our hands.

Sounds interesting to me.

Yeah.

Well, Mike, we always like to start by asking if you have a favorite slang term you’d like to share with us.

Well, I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I think I’ve been spending a lot of time with like, you know, the sort of down home phrases lately, like that dog won’t hunt or things like that, right?

Yeah, even a blind hog can find an acorn.

Right.

It’s probably because we’re in the last days of the Bush presidency and I think those might go out of style sometime soon.

So I’m kind of getting them out of the way for now.

Oh, I like that.

So it just feels like the right thing to do, to just speak plain.

Be folksy and homey.

Yeah, but maybe not for long.

Okay, Mike, let’s see how you do with our quiz.

I’ll do my best.

Are you ready?

Sure.

Okay, I’ll give you a sentence with a blank in it and two possible answers, only one of them is correct.

If you need help, Martha will be playing along.

So feel free to discuss these sentences with her, okay?

Okay, Martha, help me out here.

All right, I doubt you’ll need it, but I’m right here.

All right, well, here we go.

Here’s the first sentence.

No, it wasn’t just a few people having drinks, it was a blank.

So was it A, a hamantaschen or was it B, a party party?

I gotta go with party party because hamantaschen is a cookie, right?

Well done.

Yeah, but this is a Slain Quiz, so.

Oh.

I guess I’ve never heard a hamantaschen described as a party, but I guess it could be.

Right.

If it’s a really good party.

It’s a three-sided cookie with poppy seeds on top, right?

Yeah, right.

Right, they’re like that, poppies.

I’m still gonna take the coward’s way out and go with that.

No, you’re taking the correct way out.

It’s gonna be party party.

Well, I still feel like I didn’t really try on that one.

Well, you know, I wanted to see if that would be a stumper.

I wasn’t sure, I thought it might be easy, but the reason I chose party party is ’cause it’s a great example of how we use reduplication in English to indicate that it’s something big, great, or an especially good example of its kind.

That is, we say the word twice.

We don’t just mean it’s a party, it’s a party party.

Does that mean the beverage that you can buy in the store, the Juicy Juice, that’s the best thing on the planet?

‘Cause I’m sure that wouldn’t be Mike’s first guess.

I don’t know what they intended.

The marketing people are mysterious to me.

They sure are.

Their methods and motives are opaque.

All right, so you got one there.

Mike, we’re gonna do one more.

Let’s see how you do, okay?

All right, I’ll give it a try.

Here it is.

If I’d had the nerve, I would’ve told the cop where to blank.

What right does he have to talk to me like that?

So, if I would’ve had the nerve, I would’ve told him where to A, play patty cake, or B, to get off.

To get off?

Mm— Wow, step off, sure.

I would’ve told the cop where to A, play patty cake—

Where to get off.

Yeah, or B, to get off.

I would say where to get off.

That is indeed correct.

What’s your logic there?

Well, I mean, I think that where to get off is one of those things where it suggests the immediate action of the person you’re trying to tell what to do, right?

Yeah, where do you get off talking to me like that?

That kind of use, right?

Right.

Yeah, it’s a little old-fashioned.

It’s funny that you mentioned exactly the other term that I wanted to talk about, which is the step off, or even step to, which is kind of related.

If you step to someone, that means that you’re up in their face, ready to fight them.

And if you tell someone to step off, you mean to bug off or get out of your face or go away, right?

A lot of slang terms are about proximity.

I mean, if I tell you, if you’re gonna come to me, you better come correct.

You know, it not only suggests that you better be accurate, but you also better not be directly in front of me when I tell you that.

That’s right.

A lot of those man issues about personal space and who is the dominant person, right?

That’s right.

Gee, I was really hoping it was gonna be play patty cake.

Oh, well.

(laughing)

I wanted to use that next time I get pulled over.

Martha, you can do whatever you like.

Both ends on the cop, I guess.

(laughing)

Well, Mike, you did wonderfully well there.

Congratulations, two out of two.

Okay, glad to hear that.

Thank you so much for playing with us.

Absolutely, I’ll do it anytime.

All right.

Bye.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org.

And you can call us anytime about any aspect of language.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWORD, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Tiffany Hendrix from Las Vegas, Nevada.

I’m actually a high school teacher, and I’ve been using the term jive turkey with my large, diverse group of students.

Then I heard from a friend of mine that it was a racial slur.

So I was wondering what the origin of jive turkey actually was.

Now hold on a second, what do you do for a living?

I’m a teacher, a high school teacher.

Okay, so, and you were born when?

Give me a decade.

The ’70s, late ’70s.

So why are you using the word term for jive turkey?

Well, it’s a term that my father used.

He would just say it jokingly growing up, like jive turkey.

There we go.

So Daddy used it, and so you just remember it, and you’re pulling it back out of the arsenal, right?

Yes.

Okay.

And so how do you use it in the classroom?

Well, it started with a couple of stuffed turkeys that we used for a review game.

And I said, these are the jive turkeys.

And then the students were suddenly very interested, as if they sort of knew what that meant, and maybe I really was using it incorrectly.

Like, what did you call them?

What did you say?

So that made me even more interested in finding out what it actually, where it comes from.

Yeah, no, I don’t think it makes you racist.

I think it just sort of dates you.

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

No, Tiffany, straight to the chase, jive turkey is not racist.

Awesome.

No.

That’s a relief.

But are you a white woman?

Yes.

Oh, and you’re about 20 years too young, and pretty much the wrong race to be using the term though.

Okay, okay.

And the reason I say that is because jive turkey is heavily, heavily associated with black English.

It’s something that was very common in the 1970s, quickly faded when it became overused in movies and songs, and basically if you break it down, jive is just a way of saying lame or stupid or weak, it’s just, or fake, you know, poser-ish, and then turkey is just a common term of abuse for someone that you don’t respect.

So jive turkey.

Okay.

That’s all.

But it’s not a word that was ever used, except in a humorous or ironic way by anybody who was white.

Right, which is exactly what you’re doing, right?

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, you’re trying to make your students laugh, right?

You sound like my mother, you sound like the way she taught classes.

Yes, but who told you it was racist?

It was just a friend of mine who’s also a teacher.

She said, “I’m sure it’s a racial slur.”

I said, “Well, I’ll probably find out before I go.”

No, no, it’s not, 100% certain it’s not a racial slur.

Well, that’s quite a relief to me.

Thank you, thank you.

Old-fashioned, yes, but not a racial slur.

Awesome.

All right.

Well, thanks so much for your call, Tiffany.

All right, talk to you later, bye.

Okay, bye-bye.

Is it racist?

Is it offensive?

Is it a slur?

Is it derogatory?

Well, if you wanna know, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Elizabeth.

I’m calling from Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Well, hello, Elizabeth.

What’s up?

I was calling because there’s a phrase that my mother told me about a long time ago, and I’ve always just wanted to know what on earth it meant.

When there’s rain and sunshine at the same time, she told me that where she grew up in Georgia, people said that was the devil beating his wife, and never understood what that meant and what connection it had to the weather.

It’s such a strange phrase.

Mm-kinda shocking.

It’s very strange.

I know that one of my grandmothers would be absolutely scandalized if anyone ever used that phrase around her, so I’ve just been so curious.

Oh, really, because of the devil or the wife beating part?

Probably both, I think.

Oh, really, really.

Well, that’s the kind of behavior you’d expect of the devil, though, isn’t it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, but it is a really striking expression, and there are all kinds of variants of this, too.

You will find things like the devil’s beating his wife with a frying pan.

Have you heard that version?

No, I haven’t.

I’ve also seen the devil is beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton, and another version is the devil is beating his wife and the angels are crying.

Oh, my.

And these are regionally specific, or these are just kind of general across the country?

Well, you know, it’s interesting, because you will find it often, often in the South, but you’ll also find versions of it in other countries.

There’s a German one that goes, “The devil is beating his grandmother. He laughs and she cries.”

Oh.

And it, yeah, and I think all of these expressions, to me, they have the whiff of some really old folktale that arose to explain this weird meteorological phenomenon that you’re talking about, you know, back in the days before people understood how those things work and before they had the kind of consciousness of spousal abuse that we have today.

Right.

In fact, it kind of reminds me of this African folktale that purports to explain the appearance of the sun and the moon.

There’s this story that the Maasai tribe tells that the sun was married to the moon and they had this knock-down, drag-out fight, the sun being the husband and the moon being the wife, and the story goes that ever since, the sun shines brightly in shame because he’s got bruises all over his face and he doesn’t want you to see them, and the moon, on the other hand, shows everyone her swollen lip and her missing eye.

Oh.

That is dramatic.

Yeah, it’s really drizzly stuff, but you can see how that might have developed to explain the weirdness of the sun being up there in the sky and being so dazzling and the moon having all those craters and dark spots, but again, I think it’s from a period of time where people didn’t have the same kind of consciousness.

These expressions for when it’s raining and the sun is shining, these exist all around the world.

There’s a big list of these that was collected about 10 years ago by someone on Linguist List, which is a well-known email list for linguists, and he put the call out.

He said, “In the cultures that you study, the languages that you record, what is the expression for this?”

And it is a fascinating list.

A lot of these have to do with, oddly enough, weddings.

A monkey’s wedding or hyena’s wedding.

From the Dutch, there’s a fair in hell.

They also have the devil beats his wife or the devil beats his mother.

You have the devil’s kissing his wife in Tennessee.

You have just a ton of these.

All strange, strange stuff.

Of course, a lot of people just say things like sun shower, but in Armenian, it’s a bird’s wedding.

In Aramaic, the wolves are getting married.

In Arabic, the rats are getting married.

It’s just a ton of these.

We’ll link to this on the website, but the sun shining and raining at the same time are strange enough that so many languages and so many cultures had to come up with a way to describe them.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’ve got a question about a puzzling expression that your parents or grandparents used that you’ve never been able to figure out, give us a call about it.

The number is 1-877-929-9673, or send us an e-mail to words@waywordradio.org.

Martha, the thing I like about a riddle is that if it’s not a chestnut, meaning if it’s not a riddle that you’ve heard over and over, then it can really be a matching of the wits of two people.

That’s right.

Well, here’s a chess match instead of a chestnut.

Okay, you ready?

Yes.

I dig out tiny caves and store gold and silver in them.

I also build bridges of silver and make crowns of gold.

Dentist.

They’re the sma—

Oh, very good.

The crowns gave it away.

Oh, darn.

Okay, well.

Well, if you have a question for us, call us.

Or a riddle.

Or a riddle.

Call us, 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAY-WORD.

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Rick.

I’m in Augusta, Maine.

Hiya, Rick.

Augusta, Maine.

How are things in Augusta?

I have lived all over the United States, most recently in Texas, but moved up here for family reasons.

And I’ve been noticing the accents of the people around me quite a bit.

And the other day, I was driving, you know, going to a fast-food place, right?

And I heard the lady’s accent.

It was on the, you know, through the speaker, and I said, “Are you from Boston?”

And she said, “No, I’m from up here in Maine.”

But my family’s from Massachusetts, and I go to — they speak like, you know, they speak like Mainers.

And so I called you immediately after that because I was wondering, have there been any studies done that establish accents through just environment versus breeding versus genetics?

I don’t know because it just seems weird to me that she sounded very Massachusettsan.

Is that a Maine term?

I don’t know.

Massachusettsanite?

I don’t know.

But she sounded — not quite from Boston, but she sounded like she was from Massachusetts, but her family was from that area, but she swears to me that they all speak like a Mainer.

You know, they use the wicked good, and the “I weren’t going to the store the other day,” that sort of thing.

Mm—Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But she — I’m telling you.

And she never lived in Boston.

She said never.

She never lived in Florida and up here.

That’s it.

So her family was originally from Boston.

Is that what you’re saying?

Yes.

Right, right.

You’re on to something there, right?

I suppose, but I don’t, you know — I mean, I have not met her family.

It was just a drive-through thing.

But, you know, we had this conversation, and I was like, “That is just so weird.”

So I thought I’d ask you guys.

You’re the word people, so…

A huge amount of work has been done in this realm.

Lots and lots of work.

You can still do plenty of it.

There’s still plenty left to do.

But there are a couple things here.

Martha, some of this is old hat to you, probably all of it, but here’s the biggest news.

The thing that has the least influence on the way you talk is the media.

This surprises most people when I say this.

Yeah, does it surprise you, Rick?

It surprises me.

Yeah, it surprises me, actually.

If you’ve lived all over, also, you’ve been exposed to the second-most common influence on your language, and that is the people around you.

These are the people that you work with, the people you go to school with, your neighbors, the people that you talk to every day, which leads us to the most important influence in your language, and this is your family — your parents and your siblings and, you know, cousins, aunts and uncles, those puts of people.

If they’re speaking the same language you’re speaking, they have by far and away the most influence on the way you speak, and we know this because we can track certain features of language down generations.

There was a study done and presented at the Linguistic Society of America Conference last year where a woman talked about Jewish New Yorkers who don’t speak a lick of Yiddish or any of the East European languages like Polish or German or that sort of thing, and yet in their English, you could still find certain semantic and syntactic traces of those old languages because they were passed down from grandparents to parents to children and so forth.

So by far and away, it’s your family.

Anyway, maybe that’s more than you wanted to know, Rick.

No, no, I completely accept your premise.

Hey, Rick, is there some mainer term for saying goodbye?

Not that I can think of, but then again, I try not to incorporate major language because it makes me crazy that they use verbs wrong.

I weren’t going to the store.

But anyway, not that I can think of.

I’m sorry, but I do appreciate you guys talking to me today.

Well, Rick, I hope it was helpful.

I hope I didn’t go on too long.

No, no.

Never.

Too long is never a problem.

Hey, you guys have a great day.

Take care of yourself.

Not when it’s Grant speaking.

Heck, no.

Aw, that’s rubbish.

You’re the most interesting person.

Yes, all right.

All right.

Bye-bye, Rick.

Bye-bye.

I don’t need to be bothered.

Get out the shovel.

That’s right.

Yeah, shovel, yeah.

But tomatoes are gonna grow fine this year.

[ Laughs ]

♪ Things have come to a pretty pass ♪

That’s our show for this week.

If you didn’t get on the air today, you can leave us a message anytime, rain or shine, 1-877-929-9673.

Or e-mail your questions to words@waywordradio.org and join in the conversation with word lovers right now on our discussion forum.

That’s at waywordradio.org/discussion.

Stefanie Levine is our senior producer, our technical director and editor is Tim Felten.

Tim also engineered our theme music.

Kurt Konan produced it.

We’ve had production help this week from Michael Bagdasian.

From Studio West in San Diego, I’m Martha Barnette.

And from the Argo Network in New York City, I’m Grant Barrett.

Sayonara.

See ya.

♪ You say neither ♪

♪ And I say neither ♪

♪ Either, either, neither ♪