After several weeks in Hawaii, a South Carolina listener returned curious about the terms aloha and aloha spirit. Founded on ideas of mutual respect among humans and in harmony with nature, the concept of the “Aloha spirit” is so fundamental to Hawaii that its definition is written into the state’s legal statutes. Although it’s often suggested that the word aloha combines the Hawaiian words for “face” and “breath,” that’s a case of folk etymology. Aloha shares a linguistic root with words in several other Polynesian languages, where the words mean love, affection, or pity. The Hebrew greeting shalom and Arabic salam convey some of the same notion of harmonious, mutual respect. This is part of a complete episode.
In Newfoundland the word bridge, also spelled brudge, can mean “a deck” or “a porch,” while the word porch refers to an additional room, usually attached at the back of a house, and used as a storage space or mud room. If a Newfoundlander says it’s...
Jennifer teaches yoga on the beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and she and her students have been collecting synonyms for derrière, such as dump truck, rear end, and badonkadonk. The last of these has been around for at least 25 years, and was...
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